Scam Baiting
by Franta
Summary: Goren and Eames have to team up with a scam baiter to catch an online scammer whose scams end in murder! Bobby battles wits with a scam baiter! Carver gets his day in court! And naturally: BA... COMPLETE! sequel to follow shortly...
1. Chapter 1

Scam Baiters

Summary: Goren and Eames have to team up with a scam baiter to catch an online scammer whose scams end in murder! Bobby battles wits with a scam baiter! Alex goes undercover! Carver gets his day in court! And naturally: BA shippyness!

Rating: T for themes and a bit of language…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters associated with Law and Order: VDO- I mean CI… Sadly Bobby, Alex, Deakins, and Carver do not belong to me- but I'm glad Dick Wolf lets me borrow them. I stole the concept from a website that baits 419 scammers and thought it would be really cool if Goren had to face off with one of these guys. So, without further adue, an original work, based off of a hilarious website. Please don't sue.

Chapter 1 

It was one of those days. Alex leaned back in her chair and began to spin in circles. Bobby had his nose buried in a book. They were bored, and for once in New York City, all was quite at the MCS. Well, ok, Goren and Eames were the only ones not working. The rest of the place was buzzing. Their unofficial vacation had begun per say. It was either do mindless paperwork, or do nothing. Bobby chose a book; Alex chose nothing.

Alex was making her third circle in her chair when Deakins walked up, waking her from her stupor.

"SVU just called. Rich girl from California was found raped and murdered. It's the 5th in a string of similar murders. I want you two to go check it out," he said.

Alex groaned and swung her chair around to face him. Bobby carefully marked his place in his book with a sticky note. "Where to? Crime scene or SVU?"

"Crime scene." Alex slowly got up from her chair and grabbed her purse. She and Bobby had made it half way to the elevator when Deakins shouted out "Thanks," half-heartedly.

Alex mumbled a "Ya-ya," as they got on the elevator.

Crime Scene 

"What's up?" she said approaching Stabler and Benson.

"Victim was found raped and strangled with a belt. ID on her says she Sarah Cummings from Fresno, CA," replied Eliot.

"How'd she get here?" asked Bobby rather stupidly. Eliot looked at him like _what the hell?_

"We have no idea," replied Benson. "This is the 5th girl we have found in the past few months. Younger, from out of town, raped and strangled with a belt. Cash gone, but credit cards and IDs still there."

"We'll need to see the files from the other cases," said Bobby.

"Yah sure, we just need to get out of this crime scene first."

"We'll take this one and do some digging. We'll let you know what we find and we can compare files, see where this leads," said Alex.

"Sounds good, give us a call. I left Deakins all of our contact info."

"Thanks," said Bobby as they headed back to the SUV.

One Police Plaza 

Alex sat back down at her desk, now much more awake from the rigors of working again. Bobby fallowed shortly behind her with 2 cups of coffee.

"Iced for you and boiling for me," he said as he sat them down on the desks.

"Thanks," she said taking a sip. "Have the parents been notified yet?" she asked.

"I don't think so. Perhaps you should do it- and while you're at it, ask about the trip, and anything else that strikes your fancy," he said in an upbeat tone.

"You sound happy," she said.

"My book wasn't that good," he replied as he reviewed the police report.

Alex got out a pen and notepad, carefully arranged them on her desk, dialed her long distance code, and then the phone number for the parents. There was a pause, then "Hi, Mr. Cummings? This is Detective Eames from the Major Case Squad in New York City… I have a few questions to ask you concerning your daughter, Sarah… Well, sir, yes, we did find her. I'm sorry to tell you this over the phone sir, but she was found raped and murdered this morning… Sir, I'm terribly sorry to tell you this over the phone, if there were any other way… Well, sir, we're trying to gather information so we can find who did this to her… Sir, I can't ask you to do that…Alright…what's that address?…Thanks, I'll talk to you then." Alex hung up. "Ugh- I hate doing that over the phone. I can only imagine what Olivia and Eliot have to deal with." She shook out her shoulders.

"That was quick. What's happening?" asked Bobby.

"They're going to fly out to come get her and they said they'd talk to us when they got here."

"How long 'til then?"

"They said they'd catch a flight tomorrow. I took their e-mail address to send them our contact info. They're going to call us when they get into town," she answered.

"Did he know she was here?" he asked.

"No, she'd been missing for almost 3 days."

"Lets get her flight plan."

"It says here that she flew in last night and checked into the airport hotel. There are no credit card charges within the past week besides the ticket. The hotel was paid in cash, I'm assuming from the $10,000 that was withdrawn in cash from her bank in Fresno before she flew out here."

"To buy drugs maybe? Bad deal gone wrong? Rich California kids…" added Deakins in response to Alex's overwhelming information.

"It's possible, but unlikely. Why fly to New York to get drugs? There is a more than adequate supply in California, there's really no reason for her to fly out here for it." Deakins rolled his eyes _whatever_. "We should check her cell phone records and her e-mails," said Goren.

"Way ahead of you," said Alex. "Her cell phone record shows calls to a payphone in Queens about once every 1 or 2 days."

Bobby looked at her in amazement.

"What? I don't have the laptop yet, let's not get excited," she said suppressing a blush.

"Yet…" he mumbled.


	2. The Laptop Arrives!

Scam Baiters

Summary: Goren and Eames have to team up with a scam baiter to catch an online scammer whose scams end in murder! Bobby battles wits with a scam baiter! Alex goes undercover! Carver gets his day in court! And naturally: BA shippyness!

Rating: T for themes and a bit of language…maybe more as time goes on…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters associated with Law and Order: VDO- I mean CI… Sadly Bobby, Alex, Deakins, and Carver do not belong to me- but I'm glad Dick Wolf lets me borrow them. I stole the concept from a website that baits 419 scammers and thought it would be really cool if Goren had to face off with one of these guys. So, without further adue, an original work, based off of a hilarious website. Please don't sue.

Chapter 2

Alex walked briskly across the busy room at MCS holding a large box over her head in an _I am woman!_ manner. "The laptop has arrived!" she said with a smile on her face. She bounded over to her desk and plopped down in her short chair and set the box down.

Almost instantly she attacked it with a key, and Bobby quickly said, "Don't do that! You could damage it."

"Relax, Sherlock. It's just fine."

Bobby stopped for a second. "I'm just cautious," he finally said.

"I know I know…" she ripped open the lid and pulled out a bunch of bubble wrap and ghost terds.

Bobby discreetly reached across the desk while Alex wasn't looking, grabbed some bubble wrap, and immediately began popping.

They were quite the sight to see: Alex was opening a box and lifting a laptop out of it like it was a Christmas present and Bobby was popping the bubble wrap like it was, well, a Christmas present. The other detectives were watching them across the room from the corner of their eye.

"Parents come in tonight, I got them to overnight this yesterday after I left Deakins office." She opened the top and hit the power button.

"Good, we'll have a chance to review all of this before they get here."

"Yep!" Alex was feeling very pleased with herself

Alex was sitting at her desk and Goren was leaning over her- they were looking through the e-mails on Sarah Cummings' laptop. Eames scrolled down to the bottom of the received e-mails.

"Look at this one- 3 months ago, it seems to be when she started contact with 'Sam'."

_Church of Christ _

Dear Sarah,

_Do not be alarmed at receiving this e-mail, I received your name from a trusted friend at your church who recommended I contact you. _

I am Father Samuel Engal of the Church of Christ in Nigeria, a small church in the heart of the country that seeks to help children get on the path of God.

_As you are probably aware, it is a difficult task to fund such an operation and I am searching the world to find sweet generous souls who will help fund our church. _

_I am hereby begging for your help. We need books, bibles, and other tools of the Lord and cannot fund them on our own. We are asking for financial aid from every person we contact. This will help get our church on its feet to buy books and make repairs._

_As you do this for me God will surely bless you._

_Anticipating your urgent reply _

_Yours in Christ, Father Samuel Engal_

Goren carefully re-read the letter.

"Look, here's her reply- oh for Christ's sake, get a chair!"

_Dear Father Sam, I was glad to receive your letter. My name is Sarah Cummings from Fresno, CA and I would love to help your church in anyway I can. If you could send me your full contact information I can send you $9,000 via Western Union. All the best, Sarah_

"It goes on like this, several e-mails a week, he has her send him her picture, big mistake sweetie sending him that."Alexthrew on a foreign accent"'I'm sorry but there is no Western Union near our church. My church has just enough funds for myself to travel to New York to complete the transaction in person to ensure that our church get the funds and they are not stolen or lost in transit as that is a very large amount of money.' Geeze, how can she believe this?"

"Can you check and see if a Samuel Engal flew into NYC from Nigeria?"

"Yah, you want to go meet the parents really quick while I check?"

"What?"

"They're over there with Deakins." She pointed at an old balding man with a taller gray-haired wife.

"Yah, sure. Meet me in Interview 1 when you're done."

"Will do." Alex picked up the phone as Bobby grabbed the laptop and headed towards Deakins and the parents.

"Hi, I'm Detective Goren," he said with an outstretched hand.

"I'm Jim Cummings, this is my wife Terry," responded the balding man as he shook Goren's hand.

"Please, come with me. My partner and I have a few questions we would like to ask you, and we'll tell you everything we know," he said motioning them towards an interview room.

Goren and the parents entered the Interview room and sat down.

"How did she die?" asked Mr. Cummings.

"She was found raped and strangled with a belt. It fits a pattern of assaults and murders in town that we are looking into."

"You mean this has happened to other girls as well?" asked Terry.

"We think they were all done by the same man, yes."

"How close are you to catching him?"

"We don't know. Does your daughter go to church?" he asked curiously.

"Not regularly, but sometimes. She's very sweet."

"Does she volunteer a lot?"

"Sometimes, but mostly she gives her allowance to charity."

"What kind of allowance are we talking about?"

"My husband and I are fairly well off, she gets around $1000 a month."

"We think somebody scammed her into coming to New York on the basis she would be donating money to charity."

The Cummings looked horrified. Terry buried her face in her husband's chest. Just then, Alex walked into the room.

"I'm Detective Goren's Partner, Detective Eames," she said shaking Jim's hand over his wife's head. "Thank you for sending us the laptop. It helped us get a big head start."

"Anything we can do to help," replied Mr. Cummings.

"In her e-mails we found a series of e-mails back and forth from a Father Samuel Engal and your daughter. He claims to be from a church in Nigeria asking for aid. He convinced her to fly to New York to meet him. We found no evidence that he ever flew from Nigeria. The Nigerian police are checking the system for his name, but it doesn't look hopeful. All of the contact information he gave your daughter was fake, except for a telephone number in Brooklyn." Bobby glanced at her.

"A local guy?" he said quietly. Alex nodded. "It would have to be."

Jim and Terry looked at them confused and anxiously. "So now you're back to where you started? Nothing?"

"We'll see," said Bobby. "Thank you so much for coming in," he said as he rose to his feet.

"We'll be in town for another week if there's anything we can do," said Jim.

"We may need you to stay longer. We'll be in touch," said Bobby.

The Cummings left the room and were escorted out by an officer.

Alex looked at him questioningly.

"Come with me," he said.

Alex followed him to her desk, where he sat down in her chair. He mumbled something about "short" and she whacked him on the head. He did some fast typing on Google and within seconds he had accessed a website Alex found very curious.

"419 Baiters?" she asked.

"Our guy was pretending to be a 419 scammer," said Bobby. "They offer money, or ask for it for a 'good' cause and scam people into giving them money and their personal information so they can scam them. Our guy scammed them into meeting him, then he raped them and murdered them- after he stole their money. But first he had to make sure they were female- he's definitely got a 'type'. Did SVU send over those files from the other vics?"

"Yah, they're here somewhere. Can I get to my desk?"

Bobby got up, but hunched over to continue browsing web sites. Alex located the files quickly and gave them to Bobby. "All young, attractive, female," he said quietly. He flipped through the files. And then, "There's no cell phone or e-mail records in these."

"I'll call SVU."

"You're awesome," he said.

"I know," she said smiling.

Note to all ya'll: If you are ever looking for a good time or information on 419 Scammers, my personal favorite website is _www dot 419eater dot com. _

And don't worry- things will get good with Bobby and Alex as soon as they get really good with the story. You haven't seen anything yet! Bwahaha!


	3. Baiting Bobby

Chapter 3

Alex wandered in at 8:05- her usual lateness- but it certainly didn't matter as she almost always left late. She found Bobby sitting at his desk, deep in conversation with a gruff looking younger man with an accent that she couldn't quite place. He had shortish blonde hair that laid perfectly on his head and he was a little short too, now that she took a closer look at him sitting next to Bobby.

Bobby looked up. "Ah, here she is."

Alex walked up to Bobby's desk. He stood up with the blonde man, who was only a little taller than Alex- only half a head shorter than Bobby compared to her full-headed shortness. "Alex, this is Peter," he said.

Peter held out his hand, which Alex shook. He looked straight into her eyes. "Nice to meet you," she said.

"Pleasure's all mine," he assured her, never looking away.

Bobby coughed. "P.K.s gonna help us try to bait this guy."

"You're going to have to be our bait when the time comes, so we're gonna have to use your description," he said.

"Oh great, does this mean I have to wear a mini skirt at some point?" she asked, remembering her days in Vice.

"Only if you want to," Peter said smiling at exactly the same time Bobby tried to say, "We'll see."

There was an awkward pause. Peter smiled, stood up straight and said, "We're going to need to plan this. Where you want to go with this, how long you want it to last, and how we're going to make it believable. I read the previous e-mails with the other girls and it looks like he's going to dictating a lot of the moves- we have to act naïve, or he's not going to fall for it."

Bobby was rather taken aback by P.K.'s assertiveness and personality analyzation of the suspect. But then again, he had to admit, scam baiting was something he knew nothing about and rather than risk blowing it, _he_ had decided to call this guy in. He should have known this guy'd be almost as idiosyncratic as he was…

Alex smiled. "Let's get started, shall we?" and led him into one of the conference rooms. Bobby followed behind her.

They all sat down at the table, Peter sat on one side, Bobby and Alex on the other.

"Obviously, everything is going to have to be fake. We're going to have to rely on the fact that this guy will become so greedy to pick up his bait that he will ignore small details. Whatever he asks for, we're going to have to create, or create a good excuse why he can't have it." He gave Alex a sanctimonious nod. "Fax number, cell phone, address, and a place to meet… these things we can plan, but a lot of it we're going to have to play by ear."

"Where do we start?" asked Alex.

"We could either set ourselves up to be contacted by him, or contact him under the pretense that we heard about him through a charity organization website."

Alex turned to Bobby. He looked at her for a moment. How could he offer her up as bait? "The second one," he said finally.

"All right, I bring you a draft tomorrow morning."

Until Peter came back with the e-mail drafts to get the bait started, Bobby and Alex were really at a stand still. They had contacted the parents of the past victims to update them on the case, they had called SVU so they could be there when they started the bait, and they had been out for coffee twice. It was back to reading books and twiddling thumbs. Bobby was mid-sentence when he looked up and asked. "Did we ever read the whole e-mail correspondence between Sarah and Sam?"

"I think so. Here's the laptop if you want to read it again," she made for her bottom drawer.

"It's ok, I'll read it later." There was a pause. "PK asked if you were seeing anyone," he said finally. Alex looked up at him surprised.

"What did you say?"

"I told him not that I knew of."

Alex paused. "Okay," she said.

"What? Are you seeing someone?" he asked, afraid he was giving the wrong guy the go.

"He's not quite my type. Anyone who's that good at lying and deceiving people- even to catch them in criminal activity- doesn't seem like the most trustworthy person to be dating," she said.

"He's trustworthy," said Bobby a little devensively.

"And still you acted jealous today when he was hitting on me," she said casually.

"I'm just watching out for you- you should know that by now," he said.

"My big brother?" she said sweetly.

"Not quite," he said evasively. "I'm gonna take off. See you in the morning," he said gathering his coat and notebook.


	4. Peter K

Chapter 4 

One Police Plaza

Peter arrived at MCS shortly after Detectives Benson and Stabler had been ushered into a conference room by Alex. He made a b-line to greet Alex but Bobby popped up rather suddenly in front of him.

"Oh, hey- what's up?" he said slightly surprised.

"Not much- you got that e-mail started?"

"Yep, where would you like me to hook up the laptop?"

"We've got everybody gathered in the conference room," replied Bobby. He showed him to the conference room where Peter plugged in the laptop he had brought with him and began to fill everyone in in an almost brief-like manner.

"I've got an online e-mail account set up for in which I have typed an e-mail to our scammer. Here are slips of paper with the login information." He passed around a pile of slips of paper and then pulled up the e-mail. "Alex, would you like to do the honors?"

Alex walked over to the laptop and began to read in a sweet voice "_Dear Sam, I heard about your church from a very dear friend of mine, Sarah, and I would also love to contribute to your cause. I heard you were coming to town to meet her, but she did not say when. Perhaps I could also meet you to donate to your church while Sarah is here. I hope it is not too late, Lexy. _Lexy?"

"Had to change your name up a bit. What do you guys think? It's short, sweet, and to the point. While it clearly says she heard about him through Sarah, it still indicates that she has no idea Sarah has already made the trip and is missing/dead. Anybody see any problems?"

"It's a little stiff," said Alex.

"I honestly doubt this guy will catch it. It's dangling food- he may be smart, but greed is definitely still the motivation, and we have to count on that clouding his vision a little. This guy is already very confident with himself. He's gotten away with it five times already- he probably thinks he's invincible at this point," replied Bobby. Peter shifted in his chair.

It was Eliot's turn to speak up. "It's gonna have to work. Olivia and I have to step out, we've got another rape we're investigating. You guys officially have the case, right?"

"Yes," replied Alex.

"Ok then, you'll keep us posted when you get something?"

"Yep."

"Thanks." Eliot and Olivia got out of their chairs and left.

Peter turned his blonde head back to Bobby and Alex who were still at the table. "Well?" he asked.

"Send it."

Home of Peter K. Ballons

P.K. pulled out his keys and slowly unlocked the door to his apartment. There were Internet magazines strewn on every available surface. The walls were white and had posters from various art festivals and there was a water purifier on the counter next to the sink. After grabbing a glass getting water from the pitcher he sat down at his computer and logged on.

He opened up his e-mail to find 1 new message. He read it, hit the reply button, and then began to type: _Hi Lexy, thank you for your sweet interest in my poor church. Sarah is already here and has already given me her donation, bless her. However, I shall be in town for 1 more week as in order for my church to be able to afford this trip we had to make it long to get a cheaper round trip ticket. If you can make it within this time I can meet you to retrieve the money for our church. May I ask how much money you will be able to donate? My phone number in New York is xxx-xxx-xxxx, but please e-mail me to set up a time if you wish to talk. Thank you and bless you, Samuel._

One Police Plaza

Alex was surfing the internet when a little ding through the speakers told her she had mail. She opened up the window with the yahoo account and immediately said "Hey Bobby, we got a reply."

He got up, went to her side of the desk, and read it over her shoulders.

"Ooh- I want to mess with this guy so bad," said Alex with a tone of aggravation crossed with anticipation.

"Sorry, maybe you can go fishing some other time," smiled Bobby. "Are you gonna put a trace on that phone line?"

"Yep…One week huh? Guess that means I have to go shopping."

Bobby gave her a boyish grin.


	5. The Magic Gut Speaks

Chapter 5

To all of my reviewers- Thanks! I only hope the story will continue to go well (in a literary sense of course!)…BwaHahaha!

The next morning, Robert Goren awoke to his alarm clock as usual. He dragged himself out of bed, clambered into the shower, and began to scrub. The case was going well, he reflected. He shampooed his hair. PK was definitely as good as he was supposed to be, but he was such an ass! Bobby rinsed. He was so…patronizing; no, that wasn't the word… He grabbed a bar of soap and a rag. And Alex- how dare he try to start something with her while they were working on a case! He rinsed again. Going to send out another e-mail today… He reached for the shaving cream. Alex is one tough cookie; she can handle under cover. He lathered it on his itchy face. PK had better not make this guy any promises- and he'd better not compromise Alex's safety. He picked up his razor off of the shower floor…

"You look nice and clean today," said Alex as Bobby sat down at his desk.

"Thanks," he said. He pulled out his notebook. "Has P.K stopped by yet?"

"Nope, but he called and said he'd be in some time after lunch."

"I pulled the case files last night before I left, there was a hair found at one of the earlier crime scenes, there's no match of the DNA in the system though," said Bobby. There was one glimmer of hope and they had nowhere for it to lead them to. Damn.

"There was nothing new at any of the other crime scenes then?" she asked, although she wasn't hopeful.

"Nothing- it still looks like baiting this guy is our only chance- even if it means having to use someone like P.K.," he added quietly.

As quiet as he had intended to be, Alex still caught it. "What's wrong with him? You said he was trustworthy."

"He's such an-agh! It's annoying."

"I have never known you to be annoyed like this before. Yah, you've been annoyed before, but never like this…" She paused. "It's personal, isn't it?" A grin began to spread across her face. "Why's he got you so worked up?" she asked, unable to contain her smile.

"Nothing- I can control it. We need to focus on the case." He buried his nose in the folder in an attempt to distract himself.

"Not happening, Bobby. Tell me what's up. You heard that damn doctor, 'check in with me'," she ended in a fat pompous voice.

Suddenly his eyes lit up and he sat up straight. "Do me a favor?" he asked.

"What's that?"

"Flirt with him- but just a bit. I want to see something. It may be nothing, but I'd like to see."

"Ignore no man," she with her right hand raised. "How shall I lay it on?"

"I don't think it really matters- if he's going to respond, he'll do so either way… Actually, go 'sweetie', just for me."

Alex smiled and leaned in close. "Alright, baby."

Bobby smiled- then didn't. He closely examined the look on her face. "Yah, that's good."

...1

About an hour or so after Bobby and Alex had returned from lunch, PK had come clambering in with his laptop bag. Alex bounded up to him to greet him.

"Hi, we got a reply from our scammer last night," she said brightly.

"Excellent, shall we set up and reply?" he asked.

"Yah, the conference rooms are all full. Interrogation ok?"

"Sure," he replied. He smiled a rather goofy looking smile. Alex leaned back and turned to Bobby with a '_this ok?'_ smile.

She led Peter K down the hallway towards the interrogation room, which she chose for its closeness. Bobby could stand in the corner and talk and watch while Alex did her thing.

"So, let's see this e-mail Sam sent back," he said rubbing his hands together as he sat down. Bobby assumed his position in the corner and Alex assumed hers across from Peter.

Alex opened up the yahoo account on P.K.'s computer and allowed him to read the e-mail. "What do you think?" he asked her.

"Well, it's obvious he's in a hurry. That or he's just doing it to keep character," she said sweetly. "Goren?"

"I agree," he replied simply with a _continue_ gesture of the hand. In truth, he did not like being taught by this guy. He knew perfectly well why the killer would type that, and P.K. was starting to get on his nerves, but he knew that he would have to play it almost as sweet as Alex if he wanted to see for sure…

Peter sat there for a moment with what looked like a forced smile. "Alright, shall we get started? Alex?" he motioned to the chair next to him. She smiled, got up, and rounded the chair to the seat next to P.K.

He spoke aloud as he typed: "_Dear Father Samuel, I will be able to meet with you this week. Unfortunately, I will only be able to donate_-how much should we offer up?"

"Sarah had 9, let's go with 10," said Alex.

"_Unfortunately I will only be able to donate $10,000 to your cause. I wish it were more, it sounds like such a wonderful thing you are doing_-"

"Nice touch," interjected Alex. Bobby just stood in the corner, watching and listening.

"Thanks," smiled a blue eyed P.K. "When can we do this?" he asked looking up at Goren.

He opened his notebook and flipped through a planner- it had both his and Alex's schedule on it. "Saturday, at lunch," he said. Two days.

"_I can meet you at a place that is convenient on Saturday some time around lunch. I do hope this works out, if you need to contact me my phone number is-_" he looked up at Alex, who looked up at Bobby.

"I'll go get one of the Station pre-paids…" he said as he made for the door.

Bobby shut the door carefully behind him, walked over to Deakins' office to get a pre-paid cell phone, and then went to the room behind the mirror in the Interrogation room. He watched only briefly, but sure enough, P.K. was playing it up, and Alex was leading him on beautifully- she had to be leading him on… But what point was this all for. This just proved that P.K. was hitting on his partner- something he should very well know not to do.

After a moment more of watching Alex giggle and blush in the other room, Bobby went back into the room, pressed a few buttons on the cell phone with out a word, then gave P.K. the number.

He started typing again. "_That is my cell phone number. If there is anything else I can do, please let me know. Looking forward to meeting you and helping your church, Lexy."_

"That'll have to do," said Bobby. "Thanks for coming in. We'll call you when we get a reply."

"I look forward to it," replied P.K. "See ya, Lexy," he called out. Alex smiled and waved him onto the elevator.

The instant the door closed she rounded on Bobby. "My cheeks hurt," she said with a grimace.

"What did he say while I was out of the room?"

"He told me that you said I was single-the usual shit…"

"Slime ball," said Bobby.

"Tell me about it…and he sheds," said Alex as she pulled a stray blonde hair off of her shirt.

Bobby watched as she removed the stray hair… He seemed to zone out, his eyes glazed over. He then sparked back to life, looking slightly afraid, ran to his desk, and pulled out one of the files.

"Eames," he said as he pulled out an evidence bag. She looked at what was inside.

"Don't you think it's a bit rash? I think you're just angry at him- he's a total asshole, I'm pissed too," she said looking a little worried.

"You dropped that hair on the ground?"

"Yah- Bobby, no!" It was too late; Bobby threw the file on his desk and immediately began frantically searching the floor for the hair Alex had removed from her shirt.

"Bag," he said as if he were at a crime scene.She sighed, thenpulled one from her top drawer and Bobby inserted P.K.'s stray hair inside. "I'll be down in forensics," he said, and then left.


	6. Perfect Blonde Hair

Chapter 6

"Forensics will have the hairs done sometime today," said Bobby as he walked back towards his desk.

"Not that it'll match," and upon seeing the look on his face she said, "Oh come on, Bobby- he may be an asshole, but he's not exactly smooth, and our murderer is definitely a sweet talker."

"Let's see…got a reply yet on puppylover?"

She clicked her mouse few times. "Uhhhh…. nope, sorry."

Bobby sat there deep in thought for a moment. "Indulge me one more time- tone down the flirting when he gets here, even go so far as to stop it by the time he leaves. I'm just trying to figure him out."

"I'm sure he'll do something repulsive enough to warrant a change in attitude," she said curtly.

Alex heard a 'ding!' and looked at her computer. "Got a reply," she said. Goren rolled his chair around to her desk and read the e-mail with her.

_Dearest Lexy, God bless you for your generosity. I am currently staying at the Hyatt Hotel Downtown and would be able to meet you in the lobby at noon on Saturday, if that suits you. Attached is my picture, a map to my hotel, and the hotel phone number. Could you please send me your picture so I will know it is you when you arrive? Once again, God bless you and keep you. Yours in Christ, Father Samuel Engal_

Just as Bobby finished reading it Peter walked up to their desks. "Whatchya got?" he asked.

"Reply," said Bobby as he scooted closer to Alex in an attempt to make it look like he was trying to get a better view of the screen. Peter smiled. "What did he say?" he asked pointing at the e-mail on Alex's laptop.

"Gave us his probably fake contact info, set up a time and place for Saturday," replied Alex. Peter was still smiling. "Here, you can read it for yourself," she said turning the screen toward him. Bobby backed away from the desk to let Peter in.

"We should send him a picture- make him think he's got another for his trophy room," said Peter after reading the e-mail. "Scammers like their trophies."

"Send him a fake picture," said Bobby.

"He'll know, especially since he's supposed to be meeting her."

"You honestly think that the picture he sent us was real?" asked Bobby, challenging P.K. It was time to ruffle some feathers. Anytime now Forensics' report was due. If Bobby could get him riled up then slam him, it would be so satisfying.

"Of course it wasn't," snapped Peter.

"Give him an excuse- we're not sending Alex's picture out there. Describe what she'll be wearing, but no picture."

Peter stared at Bobby. "You're very protective of your partner," he said. "That's incredibly sweet," he smiled.

Just then, Alex's cell phone rang. "Eames," she answered. She then looked over to Deakins' office and saw him beckoning them to him. "Excuse us," she said. "Captain wants to talk." She smiled at him and led Goren to Deakins' office.

They walked in and Deakins shut the blinds. "Thanks," said Goren. "Forensics brought the hairs?"

"They're a match," he said.

Bobby didn't look surprised, but made no attempt to tell Alex 'I told you so.' "Did they check them against the rape kits as well?" he asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "Where are you going to go from here?"

"I want to finish out today as if nothing's wrong. Alex is going to tone down the flirting- this guy is hitting on her mostly to mess with me to try and draw off his scent. He's creating 2 motives basically. If there's not a solid single motive, there's no connection in his mind."

"Alright, don't mess around for long, let's bring him in and blow off the meeting. I don't want a bust that's not going to go down."

"Yes sir."

Alex and Bobby walked back across the room towards Alex's desk, where Peter had made himself comfortable- his height was better suited to Alex's chair than Bobby was. "Everything sorted out?" he asked.

"Yes, it was short," he said looking at the shorter blonde man sitting in his-in _Alex's_ chair. "Uhm, Alex and I will call you when we've got her description and clothing sorted out, then you can e-mail this guy," said Bobby indicating it was time for Peter to leave. He got up, said and individual goodbye to Alex, who didn't act all that enthused, then left.

After he was safely on the elevator, Bobby turned to Alex and said "He seriously is trying to mess with us, pit me against you. You shouldn't go anywhere alone. Since I refused him a trophy picture he might be prompted to try and grab you 'early.'" He said.

"You're very protective," she said.

"Of sorts- once we arrest him I'd really like to really piss him off. Permit me to be a little clingy?"

"You aren't already?"

"Gah! Away with you- I need a beer," he said.

"Oh, away with yourself," she said swinging an arm at him. There was a small pause as they both smiled at each other. "Fine, I'm buying."


	7. A Very Convincing Flirt

Chapter 7

The next morning Alex walked back to her desk, extremely tired. She found Bobby already at his desk, as always, and said, "Morning," as she sat down.

He smiled at her. "Good morning," he said. She couldn't help but smile back, at the same time unconsciously rubbing the skin under her turtleneck.

"Peter's coming in at 2:30 to 'type a response and finalize the details'. Can you call hotmail and have them give you the registration info on Samuel Engal's account? I'm going to go get a search warrant for his apartment and computer."

"Yah, sure. See you in a few?"

"I'll be back momentarily," he said smiling as he got up and left.

Alex immediately got on the phone with Hotmail, but they refused to give her the information, said it was confidential, right to privacy, crap like that that annoyed Alex to no end. However, with smugness in her voice she reported the misuse of the account and asked them if they'd like her to announce to the free world that hotmail was protecting a scammer, rapist, and finally murderer. They reluctantly sent her all of the account information, including the password to access it.

Bobby on the other hand was having a perfectly easy time getting the search warrant. He went to Carver, who took him to the judge, who issued it almost immediately. Bobby went back to his desk carrying a blue piece of paper.

"I take it you got it?" she asked looking up.

"Yep. Yourself?" he said as he sat down in his chair.

"Eventually. Total bunch of pricks, as usual. I had to remind them that they were protecting a murderer who was using their e-mail to lure victims. They eventually gave in," she added lightly, holding up a printout of the information hotmail sent her.

Bobby shot Alex an evil grin. "Let's mess with him, shall we?"

Alex had logged on to her computer and Bobby had excitedly rolled his chair around to her side when Deakins looked out of his office window, saw them, and decided it could only mean mischief. He walked up to them.

"Please tell me this is relevant to the case," he said exasperatedly.

"We've got the e-mail information and access to the account P.K. is using under Samuel Engal's name," said Goren with a slight smile on his face, not looking up from the screen Alex was navigating through.

"And how are you having fun with this exactly?" But he knew better. It was more of a rhetorical question.

"We're going to monitor the account, first of all, and try to see if he used this one or another one for the other vics. But mostly, Bobby here is going to get jealous," said Alex menacingly.

Deakins simply rolled his eyes and walked away.

Two thirty rolled around and right on queue, Peter K. came walking out of the elevator wearing a convincing grin to match his polo shirt. He set his laptop bag on Alex's desk and went for the zipper.

"So, how was your day," he asked, "Lexy?"

Alex smiled at him. "It was very good. Very informative. I really think we may be hot on this guy's trail."

"That's awesome!" he smiled at her.

"Naturally, Bobby helped too," she beamed.

"You two are quite the team," he replied absent mindedly as he opened up his computer. He got everything up and running, pulled up Bobby's nearby chair, and opened up his e-mail.

Peter turned to Alex, who was sitting in her chair next to him, with a smile. "Shall we give this guy a description?"

Alex smiled. Bobby shuffled in annoyance and walked over behind Alex. He reached his arms around Alex's back; completely enclosing her in what would have been a hug had he not put his right hand on the mouse and his left on the keyboard. Peter looked at them but did not say anything. Alex looked at him apologetically. Bobby opened up a new message to send Samuel Engal and began to type:

"_Dear Samuel, I cannot send you a picture, but I will describe what I will be wearing so you can recognize me. I will be in blue jeans and a red tank top, and I may have a black jacket on. I have shoulder length blonde hair. I will meet you at the Hotel Lobby at 12 per your request. If you have any questions please call my cell phone. Thanks so much, I can't wait to help your cause, Lexy_."

Alex turned her tilted head to Peter. "Is that ok?"

Peter now looked openly annoyed that this e-mail was so flattering to Alex. He looked at a stone-faced Bobby, whose arms were still wrapped around Alex.

"Stop it!" he finally said.

"Stop what?" asked Alex a little too innocently. Bobby smiled slyly at him from behind Alex's thin knit-covered neck.

"You're messing with me! You're trying to provoke me!" he said staring Straight at Goren

"How?" asked Bobby standing up straight.

"I- I don't know! You've been less than kind to me. May I remind you that I am here to help you and if you want to ruin it all and blow your chance of catching this guy and-" Peter's eyes were bulging. He was also standing up now, facing Bobby.

"And what? Look, I don't see how we're provoking you," Bobby said, a look of complete seriousness on his face. "We're just trying to wrap this up."

"You shouldn't! You could completely ruin everything! You're compromising this case just because you're jealous!"

"I beg your pardon!"

"The style is all wrong! You're just pissed that Alex gave me her number! I understand that you're protective, but this-"

Bobby paused, still looking indignant. "This guy can't tell the difference between you and me," he said heatedly with an evil laugh, pointing at the laptop, "So I think we'll continue on without you. And how dare you accuse me-" he had a finger pointed at P.K.'s chest.

"Bobby! Just stop!" she put her hand to his chest and he seemed to calm down almost instantly. She turned to P.K. "I'm sorry if you feel that we have offended you. Goren is certainly protective, and I'm sorry I let my feelings for you jeopardize his commitment to this case. I think it would be better if we finished this out ourselves so Bobby can _recommit himself_," she placed an emphasis on these words as she turned to Bobby, "to this case." She turned back to Peter. "You are welcome to meet us here at 9am on Saturday before the stakeout and come along if you wish. Your involvement was- _is_ -crucial." She said all of this with a very sympathetic tone that seemed to subdue P.K. more and more with every word. She smiled at last and walked up to P.K. She was close enough to smell his cologne. "Well?" she asked.

"I think you'll understand if I discontinue my involvement. I don't want to jeopardize the case, just let me know how it all turns out." He took her in a hug. "And call me," he said softly. Alex pulled away and saw as P.K. shot Bobby an apologetic look mingled with disdain.

He packed up his laptop silently. Bobby did not move from his spot, he seemed frozen. His eyes did not move from P.K. until the elevator door had closed behind him. The instant P.K. was lost behind the closed elevator doors Bobby relaxed, quietly rolled his chair from Alex's desk, and sat down in it.

"Wow, that was good!" said Alex in amazement. "I wonder if he's gonna crash our party on Saturday…"

"If he believed that, he will. You were very convincing. Did you see that look he shot me?" He asked the last question in a smile.

Alex looked at him, then immediately released the breath she was holding and began to laugh. Bobby relaxed too and they both just laughed. Deakins walked up.

"I certainly hope all that noise was worth it?"

"That exit was excellent," said Alex wiping tears of laughter from her eye.

"He's probably doing it to make us believe that we're shot of him. He came to us with the intent to make me jealous, all I had to do was play along and act suspicious and it was bound to give him a reason to storm out- Not only does it give him the satisfaction of believing that he's messing with us right under our own nose, but it gives him an excuse not to be with us at the stakeout, which we're going to have to go ahead with as planned. He was using Alex to throw us off his trail."

"Nice try," said Alex.

"She's a very convincing flirt…" said Bobby, looking at her almost adoringly.

Alex rubbed her neck.


	8. In the Closet

Chapter 8

Shellster- I am continuing with Old Murder, but it's a slow going process: it's not nearly as planned out as this one (I've got this one completely finished but for the details) and it's a bit more complicated. I am also moving this weekend, so I haven't had much time to really sit down and think it out- let alone write it out…That being said, hopefully, I'll have an update soon…

Also, Eames may be missing from the NBC website, but she's still on the Imdb website and they've already updated it to add Logan and his new partner, whose name escapes me…I'm assuming she'll be back, but I'll be seriously depressed if she isn't…Where would Goren be without her!

……………………………………………………………………………………………1

Later that day, after the exciting scene in the middle of MCS, Carver walked up to Alex and Bobby, who were both huddled around Alex's computer. "When exactly are you planning to execute the search warrant?"

Bobby gave a "huh?" grunt and looked up. "Oh- probably Saturday-tomorrow. Time of day depends on whether or not Peter crashes our party."

"Well, hurry up and throw your party, the judge who issued that warrant is not happy."

"Tomorrow; at noon…" Deciding that this answer would have to do, and not pressing the subject any farther, Carver left.

Alex pulled up the puppylover e-mail and saw a reply from Sam. "Got one," she said.

Bobby turned his attentions from something just behind her neck to the computer screen and read aloud:

_Dearest Lexy, I shall call you on Saturday morning to confirm the donation amount and to confirm your description. God Bless you, Father Samuel Engal_

"Waiting is the hardest part," said Alex sarcastically. There was a hint of truth in it- she just wanted to get this over with. On the other part, it was incredibly fun to have Bobby constantly hitting on her and acting like an over protective partner. She felt special and incredibly powerful yesterday during the argument with Peter. She looked at Bobby.

"He's definitely not going to show up with us…"

"The question is: Is he gonna try to grab you, and how is he gonna do it?" Alex smiled nervously. "Don't worry, I've got your back," he said bumping into her shoulder.

"Oh, _that's_ reassuring," she said, teasing him. "Come on, I've got to go find a red tank top from the spare clothes- the only one I own is my favorite shirt, as you very well knew when you typed that letter, and I'm not wearing that in a sting, sorry," she smiled at him. SOL.

"Damn," said Bobby snapping his fingers before he began to laugh. Alex got out of her chair shaking her head and headed towards the 'undercover closet'- the unofficial, non-christened, in other words: name. Bobby jumped up from his seat and chased after her. "Oh come on, you know there's nothing that small in that horrible pile of laundry."

"Well, you should have thought about that before you said I'd be wearing a red tank top," she said smartly.

"I did," he said slyly.

"Oh really?" she said as she entered the closet.

She began perusing through the clothes on the rack, obviously unimpressed by the paisley, stripes, and various assortments of mini skirts and halter tops, which proved just how much undercover time went into busting Johns…

"These skirts definitely break the number one rule of fashion," she said darkly.

"What's that?"

"Never wear anything wider than it is tall," she said, pulling out a skirt, holding it up to her waist, and giving Bobby a 'see what I mean?' look.

"I honestly don't see a problem," he said shrugging.

"I don't believe you could be _that_ shallow, perhaps you're not thinking it through. Imagine if I were a size 16 or so…" Bobby thought, and then shook out his shoulders with a shudder. "Told you," she laughed. "I knew there were brains up there- hiding behind your libido…or is it the other way around?"

"Hey!" he laughed and gave her a push into the rack of clothes.

She rounded on him. "Hey!" she said unable to contain her laugh. "It's a reputation you deserve and you know it. Aside from the odd secretary i see wandering past with an extremely red face, how many rela…"

He cut her off, backing her up against the wall with an evil grin on his face, his hand gliding across her neck. His face was inches from hers. "You were more than willing-" She cut him off.

"That's because I'm mature enough to handle it. I am not your secretary- do you see me blushing uncontrollably? What _is_ it with you and younger women?" she asked in a very light tone.

"I'm just a boy at heart, I suppose," he shrugged lightly. "How old are you, anyway?"

"I beg your pardon!" she asked incredulously. She was not going to become- no. She was a full 7 years younger than he was, and though she didn't think he knew that, she suspected that maybe he did. And she was not going to let be the only reason for them to…

"How old are you?" he asked still smiling.

"Not young enough," she said as she edged around him and left the cramped closet.


	9. The Search Warrant

Thanks for all the reviews! And for those of you who say, "This could happen in an episode" here is where it strays away from that path, though it shall eventually make its way back…

The Fang- I apologize for inconsistencies in P.K.'s character. He's a tough cookie to write for, even if his part is pretty simple (his manerisms are VERY loosley based off of someone i know). I suppose, in my defense, that it's also kind of the point: he's definitely refined at what he does (scamming, raping, and killing people), but like all murderers, he's still a psychopath. That being said, I hope this chapter clears up any confusion (but it'll probably make it worse…lol). Thanks!

Chapter 9

Apartment of Peter K. Ballons

Peter paced in his living room. His little ruse had gone well, he reflected. He definitely enjoyed poking a stick in Detective Goren's beehive, and hepositively rubbed his hands together in relish atthe thought of doing all those things to Detective Eames he had done to his other victims. But how to get her…

The hotel was definitely out of the question, it would definitely be being watched, and chances are so was her apartment. '_I'm such a jackass!_' He thought. He kicked his computer chair. Hitting two birds with one stone was harder than he had thought. By getting Goren all riled up he had ensured that he would be protective of his partner and probably have her watched, just in case.

_Well_, Peter thought, his mood lightening, _I'll just have to think of something._

Apartment of Alexandra Eames 

Alex awoke the next morning with a start. Her alarm clock was set to go off 30 seconds later. Go figure. She hoisted herself out of bed, ate breakfast, showered, and then went to her closet. She yanked down her favorite red tank top from its hangar, cursing Bobby for being such a prick.

After pulling on jeans and high heels she glanced out her window and saw a blonde haired man walking down the street. She had thought it to be P.K., but after taking a second glance, it was not he. She put her gun and holster on, put her jacket on over it, and walked out the door. She got in the SUV and headed towards Bobby's apartment. They were going to go straight to P.K.'s apartment to conduct the search in accordance to the warrant.

On any normal day coffee would have been involved before hand, but Alex was giving Bobby the cold shoulder, and he deserved it too, she thought bitterly. She watched as Bobby got into the SUV. He said a short, groggy good morning, which she returned, but said nothing more. Alex pulled out back into the street.

Apartment of Peter K Ballons

Peter was pouring a cup of coffee when he heard it- a woman's laugh. He looked out of his 5th floor kitchen window to the street below. He saw a smiling Eames and Goren getting out of an SUV and headed towards the steps. Here was his opportunity.

There was a knock on the door as Peter opened it with a broad smile. "Alex! What do I owe the pleasure?" He looked to the 6'4 man standing just behind her left shoulder who had a slight smirk on his face- as if he had remembered something funny. Peter's smiled became a little forced. "And you brought your partner. What a shame," he smiled as he took a sip of coffee.

Goren's smile widened. "You don't mind if we have a look around, do you?" Alex asked, returning Peter's broad grin.

"I'd prefer not, my apartment is rather a mess," he said. At this point he knew they had a search warrant and became increasingly glad that he had his gun in the back waist of his jeans. "Perhaps you could come back another time without Bobby? I'll definitely drink to that- although I suppose I'd have to clean to that as well." He raised his coffee cup to her, motioning at the mess within with his free hand.

"Let's not blow smoke," she said as she pulled out the blue warrant and pushed her way into the apartment.

In a flash Peter had grabbed Alex around the waist and had his gun to her throat. He looked up from Alex's neck to Goren, who had his gun pointed at him.

"Drop it!" he said.

"Not a chance," said Peter with a deathly stare. His handsome smile was replaced by a look of deepest loathing mixed with pleasure.

"Put the gun down!" Goren repeated.

"I don't think so," he said. He quickly swung his arm around and shot Goren in the abdomen. Alex screamed, "Bobby!" as he staggered backwards and fell over. Peter quickly shot Alex in the foot, and dragged her into the apartment.She saw Bobby's motionless body as Peter slammed the door shut behind them.

And fear not! I shall have Chapter 10 up without delay!


	10. Lori Michaels

Chapter 10

Apartment of Lori Michaels

Lori stirred pasta on the stove while her infant son kicked and screamed in his high chair. She heard a loud _CRACK!_ and figured her son had snapped the tray off of his high chair like he frequently did. She heard another loud _CRACK!_ and turned around only to see that the tray was still on the high chair.

She stood still for a moment. Then she heard a shout from the hallway- a woman's shout. "Bobby!" She slowly walked out of her apartment, leaving her son secure in his high chair. She peered down the stairs to the level below where she saw a large man on the ground surrounded by a pool of blood.

Lori screamed and ran back inside to call 911. When she got off the phone she noticed the screaming she had heard only moments before had stopped. She ran back out the door and down the stairs to the body.

She put her fingers to his neck, noticing the gunshot wound to his abdomen and his blood stained shirt. She felt a pulse- or was it her own? She put her fingers to her neck, and then tried again to feel the man's pulse. She simply couldn't tell.

She moaned exasperatedly and resorted to shaking the man's shoulders. She shook once, then twice, saying "Bobby. Bobby? Can you hear me? Bobby?" That had to be his name. That had to be his name. _Bobby._ Her mind returned to the woman she had heard screaming.

Lori gently set the man back down and silently pressed her ear to the door. She heard a chair scraping across the floor, and only one voice- a man's voice. The sound of approaching sirens intruded upon the noises from within the apartment.

She jumped from the door and looked over the balcony down the stairs at the approaching paramedics and policemen. "Hurry!" she shouted.

The paramedics immediately began CPR. The pulse Lori had felt was, in fact, the man's. A 'Detective Goren.' "I also heard a woman shout. I think it came from the apartment." She pointed at the green apartment door directly in front of the wounded detective, who was beginning to stir as he was hoisted onto a stretcher.

The police officer immediately told her to stand back, called for backup to surround the building, and kicked the door open, his gun drawn.

A woman, the woman Lori had heard screaming, was bound and gagged in the middle of the floor. Blood was streaming from her left foot. There was a chair by the opened window. The police officer ran about the apartment shouting "Clear!" Lori peered around the doorframe, unable to contain her concern and curiosity.

The woman on the floor looked from the man being taken away on the stretcher to Lori. "He's alive," was all she could bring herself to say. She turned. Her son had started screaming again.

Lori's fear turned from that of the horrible crime scene to her son, who she prayed was still seated safely in his high chair. But she couldn't bring herself to leave the woman until the police officer returned, which was mercifully seconds later.

Lori sprinted back up the stairs to her son. When she returned with the flushed infant on her hips, she found the scene deserted but for the officers with jackets that said "CSU."

She descended the last flight of stairs and found the woman being hauled away in an ambulance while the officer was speaking to other officers.

He turned around. "I'm officer Pino. Thanks for all your help. If you hadn't found them and called we would have lost two of the finest detectives in the city. We're going to need to speak to you down at the station. No doubt the detectives would also like to speak to you. Who lives in that apartment?"

"His name is Peter, but I don't know his last name."

"Did you see him?"

"No- I just heard the gunshots and called 911."

"Ok, thanks. Here's my card- I'm also going to need your information…"

NYU Downtown Hospital

Detective Logan walked up to the hospital bed Alex was sleeping in. He coughed and Alex woke with a start.

Sitting up, she said in a hurried, tired, raspy voice, "wheresbobby?"

"Relax, Eames. He's in surgery. He's going to be ok."

"Did you catch P.K.?"

"No- re ran out the windo-"

"I know," she snapped.

"Relax, we'll get him. How on earth did you guys manage to get yourselves shot?"

"We didn't do it on purpose! We were going to execute a search warrant and he pulled a gun. Shot Bobby, then me."

"He didn't shot to kill you."

"No, he had other things on his mind, in case you didn't read the case file," she snapped back.

Logan immediately picked up the chart at the end of Alex's bed. "He didn't? Did he?"

"No," she said, not looking at him.

"Did they do a rape kit?"

"Of course," she said shortly, still not looking at him.

Logan hesitated. "Uh- Alex? Can Barak and I borrow Bobby's notebook?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

"You'll have to ask Bobby, and until he comes 'round, the answer is no." Alex's mind flashed to the nightstand on her right, where she had Bobby's notebook safely tucked away. There may be brilliant insights to Bobby's crime solving abilities in there, but Lord only knew what else was in there. Alex never looked, and she certainly wouldn't let anybody else look. It was Bobby's. "But," she said. "You can have mine."

She reached into the drawer and pulled out her own notebook, which was placed neatly on top of Bobby's. Mike's eyes flashed when he saw Bobby's notebook.

"The answer is no," she said still more sternly. "What did you find in the apartment?" She was eager to change the subject- eager to ensure that piece of Bobby's soul remained safe.

"We got his computer, but he had deleted all of his e-mails, we've got a specialist trying to trace them on the hard drive. Uhmmm…. He's a size 36 belt, which matches the size used on the previous vics… not much else- guy's a total computer nerd. He knows his stuff."

"Did you find his trophies?" she asked.

"His what?"

"Pics of his previous victims- anything? The pics were probably on his computer with the files he deleted. Shit…"

"Mike shook his head. "Nothing on paper," he said. He hung his head, deep in thought.

The door opened. Logan and Alex turned their heads towards the doctor entering the room. Seeing the look on Alex's face he said, "He's still in surgery, but they've extracted the bullet (which I've already sent downtown, per your request). He should be ok, but we really won't know until he's out of surgery."

"And he'll be roomed with?"

"You," he replied.

Alex nodded. "How long till he's out?"

"At least another hour. They're trying to repair the damage at this point. There was a lot of internal bleeding- it's a miracle he survived."

Alex hadn't heard anything but what she repeated: "One hour."


	11. The Same, But In Essence Devided

response to a wonderful review filled with gaping holes i missed:

1. CPR- oops...sorry, it's a tv created reflex

2. Rape Kit- standard proceedure given the criminal's past

3. Hospital room assignments- oops (giggles)... it works out well for this chapter though...

Chapter 11

When Alex woke up she sat up and saw Bobby sitting up in his bed. He looked over at her.

"Hey," he said.

"That was lame," she responded- smiling simply because she was happy to see him, not because of the excruciating pain in her left foot.

"So? I'm allowed to be lame. My mind is not in top form right now," he said- also smiling because he was happy to see her, not because of the excruciating pain in his abdomen. "Also, do you have my notebook? Logan says you wouldn't hand it over- 'bitchy' was the term he used, I believe," said Bobby, smiling.

"He damn well knows why I wouldn't hand it over. Prick."

"Why- because he's just like you?" Bobby mused.

Alex threw her pillow at him. "Screw you," she laughed.

"He and Carolyn will definitely work well together," said Goren thoughtfully.

"They've gotta be tough to handle- I mean, you're crazy, but they've gotta be intense…"

"Hmmm…about that notebook."

"Oh," she sat up straight. "Yah, here you go." She carefully extracted his notebook from the nightstand drawer and leaned over to pass it to him. He reached for it, but winced.

"Here," she said and she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Bobby saw her bandaged foot.

"He do that to you?"

"Yep- fucking bastard." She got up and hopped on her right foot over to Bobby's bed, notebook in tow.

Se plopped down on the side of his bed. "Thanks," he said as she passed his notebook to him.

"Nice dress," she said looking at his hospital gown.

"Almost as nice as yours," he replied.

"They're identical."

"I know," he said simply. They were 2 inches away from each other at this point. He stared at her. "When do you get to take yours off?" he asked.

"What?"

"When do you get to go home?"

"Oh- uh… oh yah, anytime today, I'm just being a pill."

"Amazing how easily you can forget that," he mumbled. She smacked him on the forehead.

"Come on- I need you to take notes, Logan came by before you got out of surgery."

"Yah- he told me all that while you were out cold. There was a little bit of drool-" he put his index finger to his lips. She smacked him again and he laughed. "Yah-yah, the belt, the computer, all that stuff. Where's my pen?"

Alex passed a pen to him. "Did he mention the chair?" she asked.

"The chair? No- what chair?" Bobby knew she had caught something that anyone but them would have- and did- miss.

"Bastard gagged me, so I gave him a few sound kicks. Got his knee pretty good- along with some other places- he was limping. He had to use a chair to get out of the window."

Bobby smirked as he wrote in his notes. "Which leg?" he asked.

"Left, I think." Bobby continued to write. "How long have you been out, anyway?"

"Of surgery?" He rubbed his temple. "Two hours I suppose, maybe more."

Alex nodded. "When do you get out?"

"Probably a week or so- they're not sure."

"Well, Ballistics has both bullets-"

"Both?"

"The one from my foot, and the one from your abdomen. Anyway, they've got both, and they're gonna put a trace on the gun. Not that it'll help- we already know who did it," she said bitterly before tilting her head and thinking out loud, "He didn't really think this through though, did he? Gunshots in a public place, grabbing a cop…"

"I know," said Bobby, thinking about it as well. "The signature is all wrong- no where near the other vics. All of the other killings were methodical; none of the other vics showed evidence of being bound. And no offense, but you're not exactly his type, you're too…too…" he trailed off in what Alex perceived to be hesitation.

"Just say it Bobby, I'm old."

"You're not old- and that's not entirely my point-"

"What?" Alex sat up, looking at Bobby, who was deep in thought.

He looked at her. "I don't think he killed those other girls."

Alex didn't buy it. "He went after me- _US_- because we were investigating the cases! Once a kidnapper and killer, always one!"

"The style just doesn't fit. I am in no way undermining what he did to you-"

"And you," she cut in, pointing at the bandages poking through his hospital gown.

"-But he couldn't have committed the first 5 murders. The question now is: Why did he get involved at this point? And where is the original murderer?" The look on his face screamed '_Don't you understand! You have to understand!_' mixed with '_I am so sorry._'

Tears streamed down Alex's cheek. She couldn't cope with it. What happened to her had been a result of the investigation, yet the two had nothing to do with each other? She couldn't deal with it.

Bobby sat up to hug her, but she slipped off of his bed and hopped back to her own where she climbed under her covers and curled up to sleep, her back to Bobby.

As if he had read her mind, he said, "Alex, we are not back where we started. There is a connection; we just have to find it. When I get out of here, we'll find it." Alex neither spoke nor moved. "In the meantime- while Logan and Barak have the case- let's be as needy and annoying as we can." At this, Alex's shoulders shook with laughter as she sniffed.

Sherolled over onto her back, looking at the ceiling. "Look at us, we're both in the hospital, you're two hours out of surgery for a gun shot wound to the abdomen, and we're talking about the case."

"You know me..."


	12. Back to Work

Kavi- fear not, fluff is on the way…and you have no idea how difficult it is to write fluff in my current…situation…cough…however, I fear I must embarrass myself for the sake of my story…enjoy!

Chapter 12

Bobby had the back of his hospital bed all the way up so he could read, but he wasn't in it. He was sitting, fully clad in his pajamas, at a little table in the corner of his room. Alex was sitting across from him.

Alex had packed up and limped home the night before, but she was back bright and early the next morning with coffee, bagels, and case notes.

Bobby was still looking a little ill, but on the whole was much better. The surgery worked wonderfully and he was well on his way to a full recovery.

That didn't stop, however, a whole flock of nurses to come and care for him, see how he was doing, and constantly tell him to stay in bed and rest, which he was reluctant to do, no matter how tired he was.

A very pretty nurse with long blonde hair came in, followed shortly after by a very old nurse, with short grey hair. The blonde nurse sat a tray on Goren's bedside table. "Bobby, you know you're not supposed to be out of bed," she said with a reproving smile. Alex looked at him with a big grin on her face, and turned her chair around to watch the show.

"Sorry, Gretchen- case notes, gotta work. Thank you for the breakfast, by the way, it was lovely," he said with a puppy look in his eyes. Gretchen beamed at him.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Goren, you're orders are to be in bed," said the grey haired nurse in a scratchy voice.

"Linda, I'm fine here. I'm not running around, I'm just sitting here and reading. I'll get back in my bed later." His tone with Linda was much less tolerant. He looked over at Alex who had started to shuffle papers like she was getting ready to gather them and leave.

"I'm sorry," she said in a nice tone, very similar to that of Gretchen's. "I was just leaving anyway. I had something quick to discuss with him, but we're done now." She continued to smile at the blonde nurse. Linda looked like she was all for that plan and just as she was about to motion for Alex to get out Gretchen stepped in.

"Oh, Linda, it's ok, he's just reading," she said giving Linda a push towards the door. "But he knows he's got to get some rest," she beamed over her shoulder as they left. Bobby smiled and waved the two ladies out.

Alex sat there, her eyes still on the door. "The blonde is cute," she finally said.

"Shut up- very slick, by the way," he said, giving her due praise.

"You learn a fair bit about manipulation working at Major Case. And besides, it only worked because she likes you so much- you…how should I say this… Warmed her up for me?" said Alex giving him a smirk.

"Very funny," said Bobby with a return smirk. "When is Mike coming by?"

"Sometime before lunch- he put up a fight."

"I'll bet- at least Deakins agreed."

"Yep."

"So he'll be bringing all of the case files and info we have, then?"

"Yep."

"Good."

Five minutes passed as they worked. Alex moved her chair towards Bobby's to see some of his notes. Five more minutes passed, and Bobby moved his chair towards Alex's to see her notes… they continued to work.

Logan knocked on the door to Goren's room. "Goren, you decent?"

He heard a "Yah, come on in," and entered.

What he saw was not surprising, but he still hadn't been expecting to see it.

Bobby was sitting at his table, pouring over case notes and Alex was standing behind him, her hands on his shoulders as she read over them.

Logan coughed. Alex stood up straight and Bobby turned around in his chair, momentarily forgetting his injury. The movement was short lived, however, Bobby let out a "Shit," and turned his torso back around. "No better?" asked Logan.

"It's a little better, I just don't pay attention to it like I should."

"That's too bad," said Mike in an unconvinced tone. "I brought the case files. Remind me again, Alex, why you couldn't get them yourself?"

Alex held up her injured foot, which was now in a small blue cast.

Logan rolled his eyes and held out the folders to Alex. Bobby made to get up but Alex pushed him by the shoulders back into his chair. She then limped over to Mike and retrieved the folders. "Thanks," she said.

"Yah, 'welcome," he replied and then headed out the door. "See you two later."

"Bye," said Bobby. Alex limped back over to the table, sat down, passed one folder to Bobby, kept one for herself, and put the rest in the middle on top of the already enormous pile of papers.

Bobby carefully read the case file of the first victim. "No," he mumbled, "I couldn't have missed that…"

"What?" said Alex, looking over.

"The contact info…Peter found her…his sister…"

Tired of listening to Bobby babble she grabbed the folder from him and read aloud, "'Peter K. Ballons, Ada Nevil's brother, contacted at…' he was the first victim's brother." Alex looked up at Bobby.

"He was the one who found her-"

"Which is why his hair would have been at the crime scene," Alex finished.

Bobby looked at Alex. God, she was beautiful, but his mouth spoke- as if it had a mind of its own- before he could dwell on her pretty features. "If the scammer got his sister, he'd want revenge…" Bobby could have slapped himself. Ahg!

Alex nodded in agreement, but her mind was elsewhere as well. She looked at his shoulders, at the bit of skin not covered by his pajamas. "But why wait for 4 more murders before getting involved?" The words had escaped her mouth without a thought about them.

Bobby's eyes fell down to her hands, which were propped up on the table where she was writing notes. Her left hand was centimeters from his right. His fingers twitched. "Why wait-," he mumbled.

"-to come after us…" Their minds were making so many connections, but all they could bring themselves to do was talk about the case…

"Where is the murderer?" asked Bobby faintly.

"No idea," whispered Alex. And finally, after 4 years of working cases together, 4 years of on and off flings, they knew…


	13. Medical Advice

Was that last chapter fluffy enough for ya'll? It was fun to write...(squeel!) Also- i know nothing about guns, so, in the blank spot: ignh: ("insert gun name here")

Chapter 13

The Ballistics analyst walked up to Logan and Barak with 2 bags.

"Gun was a "ignh ". I'd say it's about 2 years old judging from the indentations on the bullet. Both bullets came from the same gun-"

"We know, anything else?" interrupted Barak curtly.

She shot Carolyn a pissed look, but continued talking as if she were never interrupted. "Nothing much more than that, I'm afraid. Did you look into the suspect or his family? There might be a gun registered to one of them." Mike continued to look at something very interesting on his shoe.

Carolyn didn't respond, rather took the bags and walked out with a cold "Thanks."

One Police Plaza

Mike walked up to his desk, but looked over and saw Goren and Eames sitting at their desks.

"I thought you had another week of bed rest?" he asked, approaching Goren.

Alex was on the phone, but said a quick "Thanks," and hung up. "Got it," she said to Goren. Then to Mike she said, "So did the nurses."

"The key word was 'thought'," said Bobby. "I thought _you_ had crutches," he said to Alex.

"Again with that word," said Alex. Bobby and Alex stared each other down as if the first person to give in had to follow their medical advice while the other got to ignore theirs.

Mike lifted his eyebrows in a weird expression, mumbled, "Ok…" and headed for his desk.

...1

"What's your plan?" asked Deakins, rounding his desk and sitting in his chair.

"We don't think Peter had a lot of warning we were coming after him, which is why he acted so rashly. He's a methodical man, and his actions not only don'ts fit his nature, but also it doesn't fit the murderer's M.O. either. Basically, the opportunity presented itself, and he took it," said Bobby.

"Which is why he wouldn't have planned ahead for being on the run. So, we froze his bank account," Alex finished a little too innocently.

"Unless he's got a stash somewhere we don't know about, he's going to have to go to someone he knows- someone he feels safe with- for money."

"He has no living blood relatives, but his sister was married to a Chris Nevil, who lives in Jersey," said Alex looking at Peter's file.

"Wait a minute," said Deakins, holding a hand up. "You're telling me Peter didn't commit those murders?"

"The first victim was his sister, it doesn't seem likely," said Bobby. "From what we know, he was very close to her."

"So why did he go after you two?"

"He was probably very distressed at his sister's death, and the fact that her killer was still on the loose- and managed to kill 4 more times- probably pushed him over the edge. He didn't attack us because we were investigating him- I doubt he even knew that we were- he probably attacked us because it took so long to put a serious effort into solving his sister's murder."

"So where is the original killer?" asked Deakins, still trying to absorb everything Bobby had told him.

"No idea," said Alex. "We're working with Hotmail to track down the original Samuel Engal and find him."

"And you've frozen Peter's account- you think he's gonna go to his brother-in-law- this Chris something?"

"Chris Nevil," said Alex.

"I'm almost positive," said Bobby.

"Alright- go talk to him. And I'll have Logan and Barak stake the place out and watch for him. As soon as you talk to him I want you back in New York. And," he added as Alex and Bobby headed for the door, "Be careful."

"We'll have vests," said Eames over her shoulder as she hopped along on her crutches in front of Bobby, who was holding the door for her.

Deakins watched as Goren shut the door behind them. "I can't believe I'm letting them work…" he mumbled as he rubbed his forehead.

Home of Chris Nevil

Alex banged on the door with one of her crutches. Goren grabbed it from her and knocked with his fist. Alex shot him a dirty look as he asked, "Are you _trying_ to destroy them?"

Alex managed to balance herself and hit Bobby's leg with the other crutch. "Ow, what was that for?"

There was some shuffling, some scuffling, and Chris Nevil opened the door as Alex and Bobby were in a full out fight for Alex's crutches, both of them with grin's on their faces.

"May I help you?" asked a very confused Chris.

Alex and Bobby straightened themselves out. Alex held out a hand, saying, "Chris Nevil? I'm Detective Eames of the NYPD and this is my partner detective Goren. We have a few questions we'd like to ask you concerning you're brother-in-law Peter Ballons. May we come in?"

"Yah sure, come in. Can I get you anything to drink?" he asked, motioning them through the door.

"Coffee would be wonderful," said Bobby as he helped Alex through the door.

Chris made for the kitchen, Alex and Bobby trailing behind.

"You wanted to know about Peter?" he asked as he poured two cups of coffee.

"Yes, we were wondering if you were still in touch with him. Are you two close?" asked Alex as Bobby took the two cups of coffee from Chris and began adding sugar and cream to each.

"On and off, we've kept in moderate touch since the funeral."

"So, he trusts you," said Alex. It was not a question.

"I'd like to think so."

Bobby walked over and sat besides Alex, handing her her cup of coffee. "Mr. Nevil," he said, "Peter attacked 2 police officers, us specifically, and we're going to need your help to catch him."

"What did he do?" asked Chris completely taken aback.

"He shot my partner in the stomach and myself in the foot," said Alex coldly.

"He…shot?"

"Yes- why? Do you know something?" asked Bobby, leaning forward despite the pain.

"He…he borrowed my gun a week or so ago. Said he needed it for something, wouldn't say what…" Chris was looking quite distraught.

"We've frozen his bank account- he's gonna need money and we think he'll come to you. It seems you're the only person he trusts anymore," replied Bobby.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing just yet. We're going to place a watch on the house and we'll arrest him if he shows up. If he calls, act like nothing's wrong. Whatever it takes, get him here, and we'll take care of the rest."

"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling me everything?" he asked, still upset that Peter could do such a thing, and still a little confused.

"You'll find out in due time," replied Bobby comfortingly. "Right now, we just need to catch him."


	14. LaLa Land

Chapter 14

Bobby helped Alex through Deakins' door, allowing his hand to linger on her hip as she wedged her crutches through the narrow doorframe. Her cheeks flushed slightly as she sat down in the chair.

"Well?" asked Deakins.

"There's Chris Nevil, but we told you about that over the phone," said Bobby, looking at the ceiling from his chair. Alex remembered that phone conversation very clearly.

Bobby was driving, as her foot was in its blue cast, and so Alex had been delegated the task of calling and updating Deakins while Bobby wrestled with traffic.

But despite Bobby's distraction, this had not deterred him from offering his input as he swerved through traffic.

"Holy Crap, Bobby! Slow Down!" she said, putting her hand to the mouthpiece of the cell phone.

"What! I'm only going 75!" he replied.

"Watch the road please!" Alex removed her hand from the mouthpiece. "Sorry Captain, little trouble with traffic, it's a disaster." She tried to sound conversational, but it just wasn't working; 'it' was Bobby…

Alex sat there and listened to Deakins' lengthy response, rolling her eyes and lolling her head- making Bobby look at her and laugh.

"Watch the road," she reminded him.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied. Alex threw him the bird, but that just made him laugh.

"Sorry Captain, what did you say?… Oh- well, turns out Peter borrowed the gun from Nevil, so we're almost positive-"

"I _am _positive!" Bobby shouted at the phone, throwing his blinker on and making a quick lane change.

"Bobby's positive that's where Peter's gonna go, so we introduced him to Logan and Barak-"

"Who were LATE!" he shouted again at the phone.

Alex closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "-who are watching the place as we speak."

There was silence as Alex listened to Deakins' response. "What's he saying?" asked Bobby.

"Shh!" Alex plugged her left ear and turned towards the door.

Bobby made a struggled noise and said, "Just put him on speaker phone."

Alex gave him a "shoo" with her left hand, then straightened up and said into the phone, "Yes, sir… yes, sir. I'll type it up and send it to you… Bye."

Alex turned off the phone and turned to Bobby, her finger pointed at him. "You-" she began, but Bobby grabbed her pointed finger, took a quick glance at traffic, then pulled her in and quickly kissed her before looking at the road again.

"Bobby- Watch the road," she said, trying in vain to suppress her smile.

Bobby smirked and returned both hands to the wheel. "What did Deakins say?"

"I don't think he heard anything. Just told me to type it up and e-mail it to him. You're a real pill sometimes, you know that?" she said, still on the edge of a smile. He smirked again as she turned around and reached for the laptop bag in the backseat.

So- Alex had typed it up, sent it to Deakins, and now here she was, sitting in his office, the past memory blurring by.

"Well?" asked Deakins again.

Bobby jumped from a stupor similar to Alex's and said, "We go back to tracking the real Samuel Engal while Logan and Barak go after Peter. Maybe we looked on the wrong end for Sam's flight records. We she check Sam's coming into New York, not leaving Nigeria, and we should also track where his e-mail account was accessed from- that should help us too."

"Why didn't you do all of this before?" asked Deakins, agitated that his two best detectives seemed to be off in la-la land.

"Peter had us sidetracked. He meant to do it- I just didn't see it…" Bobby's thoughts continued past his words. _I was distracted…_

"Well get on it, and let's hope Peter shows up soon…"


	15. That Was Quick

Chapter 15

Home of Chris Nevil

Chris Nevil sat on his old couch in the living room. The TV was on, but he wasn't watching it- he was looking through a photo album that contained some of the few pictures he had of his late wife, Ada, thinking about how much things had changed in the past few months.

Happily married; she goes missing; her body is found; the funeral; quiet; Peter borrows the gun; the cops show up; setting Peter up…How?

A tear trickled down Chris's Cheek, and as he turned the page, the doorbell rang. Chris quickly snapped the book shut, stuffed it under the couch, wiped his cheeks, and opened the door.

His hair was trim and neat, though he looked like he hadn't shaven in the past day or so. Peter quickly stepped in the house and shut the door behind him.

Chris's heart hammered. "Peter? What are you doing here?"

"Peter fidgeted. "I need to borrow some money."

Chris looked concerned. "Sure, what for?"

"I'm in a tight spot- I just need some money to hold me over. I'll pay you back."

"Uh, ok. Sure, how much do you need?"

"Couple thousand-"

"Peter-"

"Can you or can't you!"

Just then, the door was kicked open. Logan ran into the room, following by Barak. "Freeze! Police!"

Before Peter could reach for his gun Barak had hers pressed against his skull. "Don't even the about it," she said coldly.

Peter slowly put both hands in the air. Logan stepped up and pulled P.K.'s hands behind his back. "Peter Kenneth Ballons, you are under arrest for assaulting a police officer and attempted murder. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…"

Apartment of Robert Goren

The Phone rang. Alex lifted her head off of Bobby's chest and reached across the couch to the coffee table where her cell phone sat. "A- Eames," she said groggily. She had been sitting on the couch, her head against Bobby's chest, reading case notes until she drifted off into sleep.

"Eames- we got him," said Logan over the phone.

Alex bolted upright, causing an awkward shift in weight on the couch. Bobby sat up. "When?" she asked.

"About an hour ago, we're bringing him up now."

"Be careful, traffic's crazy over there…"

Logan laughed. "We will- see you in an hour or so."

"Ok, bye." Alex hung up and turned to face Bobby. "They got him."


	16. Connecting The Dots

Well, it's time again to post my disclaimer. It's been quite a few chapters since I last put it up, and Mr. Wolf deserves his due praise at every mention of the names Bobby or Alex...

So: I do not own any part of Law and Order: Criminal Intent aside from the 1st season DVDs. Sadly Bobby, Alex, Deakins or Carver don't belong to me, but it makes my day that Dick Wolf lets me borrow them. This story is based off of 419 scammers, but is in no way related to any actual scam. Any coincidences are purely coincidental. Please don't sue.

Also, language warning- not that any of you reading this haven't used the f-word before...

Chapter 16

Peter sat in the chair at the center of the table facing the glass, his lawyer at his side. He sat stoned faced until the door opened and Goren walked in. He was wearing a dark blue suit with a light blue shirt with a rich pale green tie. Alex, who was wearing long black pants and a delicate pink shirt, followed him in, unaccompanied by her crutches.

Peter saw her blue cast and a smile flickered across his face. Alex threw her notebook on the table and kicked the door shut behind her with her injured foot. It slammed closed, the sound ringing in the grey brick room.

"So, who would like to go first?" asked Bobby. "Detective Eames and I have a lot to say, but we'd love to hear from you as well."

"Alright, I'll o first," he said, leaning back in his chair. He put his hands behind his head in a relaxed position. Silence ensued.

Alex stepped away from the door where her injured foot had still been propped from where she slammed it shut. "That's very funny, Peter," she said.

"I believe it's out turn," said Bobby to her. "Would you like to start Detective Eames?"

"With pleasure, Detective Goren. I think I've got a bit more to say than you did," she said, turning to Peter.

"Only natural," said Bobby civilly.

Peter looked from one to the other. They were smiling nicely at each other. They seemed to be communicating without words- all with those stupid grins on their faces…

Suddenly Bobby tossed his notebook on the table next to Alex's, and threw himself into the chair across from Peter, making more noise. That's when Alex began.

"Before we address why exactly you are here, let's get one thing straight: If you lay another hand on me or my partner, I'll put a bullet through _your_ foot, then I'll put one through your balls, got it?"

"That is totally out of line, Detective," interjected his lawyer.

"Sorry," replied Alex unconvincingly. Bobby smiled as he looked at the tables, his thumbs twiddling innocently.

"So," she said, her voice relaxing back into its normal tone. "We know your sister was the first victim- we tracked the guy who killed her. Turns out he was based out of London, not Nigeria. We found his flight records. He made 5 trips to and from New York. He made a 6th trip out, but never went home."

"Maybe he decided to set up home base closer to his victims," said Peter.

"Actually, we think he vanished into thin air," said Bobby.

"Very astute, Detective."

"Oh, but there's more," said Alex. "Around his 6th trip to NY is when his e-mail account went from being accessed on a London phone line to a New York line- this all happened shortly before we called you in and began our little 'correspondence.' So- what did you do with Sam's body?"

Peter sat in his chair and smiled patronizingly at them. "Congratulations, Detectives. You have finally done your jobs- done a little 'investigating.' However, I'm afraid I don't know the slightest thing about 'Sam's body.'"

"Let's not get smart," spat Alex, but Bobby had other things on his mind.

"I've also figured out why you attacked us- actually, it was my partner who said it. She's smarter than most people give her credit for. She said that you 'went after us because we were investigating the cases.' That's why you did it, isn't it? Because we took too long?"

Peter sat there, and while he remained silent, his entire body seemed to shake.

"What was it Peter? That it took them so long to have the sense to realize it was over their heads? Or that they had to call in Major Case to do something you had already done?"

"No!" Peter shouted as he started to stand. He closed his eyes to compose himself as he sat back down.

"Peter, I think it's best if you don't say anything," said Peter's lawyer, putting his hands on Peter's shoulder. He shook him away.

But Bobby was in full swing (and full head tilt) at this point. "What was it then? Were you mad that we were chasing the killer? Did you hire him?"

"How dare you accuse me of having her killed! If you knew the length to which I went-"

"What lengths, Peter? She was your sister- the sister of someone who baited the very people who killed her! You let this happen!"

"No! I didn't! I didn't know! I just- it just… happened. The instant it happened again, I knew. And I waited, and waited, and WAITED! And you did NOTHING!"

"But you had to do something, didn't you? You track his down, you baited him, and you killed, him, didn't you?"

Peter sat in the silence. "The police weren't doing _anything_. Weren't doing their damn jobs! Supposedly the city's finest. _I _was able to find him- to track him down."

"Peter," his lawyer said feebly.

"And kill him!" interjected Alex.

"You blamed the police- someone had to pay for your sisters death, and the police didn't do it, so you did," said Bobby.

"Why not set out to educate people? Spread the word- create awareness?" asked Alex.

"Awareness!" snapped Peter incredulously. "Awareness? Awareness didn't save Ada! Awareness didn't save those other four women- action! Action stopped it! Action you wouldn't take!"

"Where is the body, Peter?" asked Alex with a forceful tone, her hands propped on the table.

"Somewhere he deserves to be," spat Peter.

The lawyers hung his head and sighed…those damn detectives…

Bobby sat deep in thought. "Action," he muttered. "The police weren't taking action, so you did and-"

"You were still too blind to see it!"

"So you decided to show us action!' asked Alex, putting her injured foot on the table. "One hell of a way to show us action!"

" You weren't trying! Cocky sons of bitches, treating it like- like it was less than murder! But _I _did the dirty work. _I _did _your_ jobs. Even once you figured out what needed to be done you let your feelings get in the way!" Alex looked taken aback. "Don't look at me like that, Alex- it's so fucking obvious- I bet you two can't keep your hands off of each other! You shouldn't be allowed to work together-"

"Don't you dare- Don't you ever-" said Bobby rising from his seat.

"Bobby," said Alex softly, putting her hand on his arm as he sat back down.

"See! See what I mean? You guys- all of you - putting yourselves before the people you are supposed to protect! You sat there in your pretty little rut while you let my sister die- you let her DIE!" Peter was shaking; the vein in his temple was throbbing.

"So you tracked down her killer and killed him," said Bobby.

"Someone had to," said Peter, defeated.

"I think we're done here," said Alex, gathering her notebook and opening the door. Bobby took one last look at Peter and followed Alex out.

Back in the observation room, Peter could be seen conversing with his lawyer. Alex and Bobby walked into the room to find Deakins looking through the glass. The look on his face said it all. He had heard what Peter had said and was connecting the dots as they stood there in front of him, their arms brushing against each other.


	17. Compromising The Prosecution

Chapter 17

Deakins looked up at his two best detectives. Alex looked at him and turned to leave. Carver stepped out of the corner; neither Alex nor Bobby had seen him there.

"Captain," said Bobby.

Carver knew that they weren't thinking about Peter's confession- and neither was Deakins- and took control of the conversation accordingly. "This doesn't have to mean anything," said Carver simply.

Alex stopped in her tracks, her hand still on the doorknob. At the look on her face Carver said, "Let's not discuss this now. Bring me the evidence you have against him- I'll take care of the interview tape. Let's get this trial wrapped up.

"Trial?" Alex had started to say, but Deakins spoke up.

"As of now you are off all cases but this one. If this plays out-"

"What if he's just ranting?" interrupted Bobby.

"Then everything's fine," said Deakins, though neither Bobby nor Alex thought he meant it.

"The trouble is, detectives, the only way to stop a full out IAB inquiry is to convince them that Peter was imagining it- seeing something out of nothing. 'Nothing' being Alex's…undercover work. This however, will give the groundwork for an insanity defense which Peter's lawyer will undoubtedly jump at- it _could_ create enough reasonable doubt to get him off," said Carver.

"Is there any way to prove everything else beyond a reasonable doubt but…those last remarks?" asked Alex.

"I'll try," said Carver.

Bobby looked from Carver to Deakins. "Thank you, Carver," said Deakins. He turned to Alex and Bobby. "My office. Now."

Deakins opened his office door and ushered them in. He shut it behind them and closed the blinds.

"Captain," Bobby had started to say again, but Deakins interrupted him.

"I will listen to you after I've had my say." Deakins paused. "You guys are so good together. You're the best pair of detectives I've ever had. What Carver has to do for you is putting all of your hard work at risk. He is compromising the prosecution to keep you _together_ when he would hang you out to dry were you any other detectives in this situation. I don't care if what Peter says is true- though I strongly suspect it is- but if anything like this ever happens again _I_ will hang your butts out to dry, regardless of what Carver is or isn't willing to do. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir," they both mumbled. Deakins had not yelled, but he might has well have- at least Alex could have blocked it out then. But this; this was much worse. Neither she nor Bobby could deny Peter's allegations, but to confirm them would ensure their separation. In this situation, silence was the best policy.

Alex wished it would all go away- they had just successfully tracked down, caught, and wormed a confession out of a suspect. It would have pleaded out by now and everything would be back to normal if they had not let their emotions get in the way. But now he had a viable, even if shaky, defense and Alex feared loosing Bobby more than ever.

"Peter was right," she mumbled as Bobby drove her home, taking care to mind the traffic this time. "We let our emotions get in the way, and now it could cost us everything."

"That's not true- if our emotions had gotten in the way we wouldn't have solved this case like we have solved every other case that has been put before us," replied Bobby.

"But he used it to get at us- he used it to put us in the hospital, and he's using it to split us up-"

"That's just it- he used it against us, it didn't get in the way."

"How does that make it any better!" Alex had begun to cry. "We're still going to be split up!"

"Alex, we don't know that. Having our feelings get in the way and having them used against us are two different things. Despite our feelings-"

"Just say it, Bobby! We're lovers! And allowing our feelings to be used against us is how they got in the way!"

"When we were- are- we are- lovers we could- can- we can still do our work. You are still one hell of an investigator and we still get the job done. Being together had- has no affect on that. If anything, it strengthens those abilities."

"But it made us terrible liars- we couldn't even successfully hide it from the suspect we outsmarted," sniffed Alex.

"Then we'll never be able to lie to each other," said Bobby gently, reaching over to wipe a tear from her cheek.

Alex smiled and relaxed. "Hey Bobby," she said, still smiling serenely.

"Yeah?" He looked at her.

"Watch the road please."


	18. This Is How Things Stood

Sorry it's taken me so long to post up- school started back up and i've been trying to find time to write on top of my AP Calculus homework... However, here is a short filler to tie you over to chapter 19, which will be up by Monday,I promise...Also- i am the proud owner of Season 3 as well (bwahaha!), but naturally the rest belongs to Dick Wolf...

Chapter 18- Now This is How Things Stood (say it in a Sean Connery accent)

Alex and Bobby got out of the SUV, gave the keys to the parking attendant and headed towards the courthouse stairs. Alex had been driving, her foot now out of its cast. They were supposed to meet with Carver, Peter, his attorney, and Judge Weber to discuss the trial and possibly come to a plea agreement...

The past few weeks had been heinous. Deakins had put them on unofficial suspension (desk duty) after Peter's interrogation… until IAB had put them on official suspension "pending investigation". It was like being put in time-out while you waited for the principle.

Shortly before IAB became involved, Peter made an appeal to the press and Public, explaining his "actions" and calling much unwanted attention and investigation into very close and tight-knit units. Bobby and Alex weren't the only pair of detectives under investigation- the top pair at Narcotics (post Goren), the top pair at SVU (yes, Elliot and Olivia), and other top pairs from around the 5 Burrows. IAB just _had_ to get involved…

The investigation had, not without reason, not taken long with most of the other pairs; naturally, narcotics was taking public heat for the whole drug thing (God forbid being undercover should entail doing drugs with the people you are undercover to catch); but everybody else besides Goren and Eames, and the pair from Narcotics, Byani and somebody whose name i forget, had escaped unscathed, their partnerships intact, and only the mildest public scrutiny endured.

To be honest, nobody at One Police Plaza had been surprised to hear that Goren and Eames were under investigation for their 'interactions' for lack of a better word. It was in the way they walked, the way they conducted their investigations, right down to what they ate (together) at lunch. A fair amount of the people in their building though, with the exception of a very red-eyed receptionist, seemed to think that it was perfectly innocent- and besides, break up the two best detectives in the city? However, IAB thought Peter's statement too good an opportunity to make sure the public thought that they were keeping control of the cops, which were keeping control of the crime. Hypocritical, I know…

The result of all of this, was of course, that Logan, Barak, and everybody else at Major Case was overworked with picking up the large amount of slack that Goren and Eames obviously occupied; Bobby and Alex had to act less-than-normal around each other in public, which had put an unusual strain on their relationship (in public); And, Carver had an unusually tricky case on his hands- though his smooth mind told him that it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. Besides, he had an idea…

Goren's trench coat flapped in the wind, while Alex's tight fitting jacket remained snugly buttoned in place. The jacket didn't save her hair, however.

They walked through the hallways, quietly discussing the case, being awkwardly careful not to walk too close to each other. People were staring at them. "Everyone's passing judgment these days," she whispered bitterly to Bobby as they walked up to Carver…


	19. It's Pronounced Vayber

Chapter 19

Alex and Bobby approached Carver as he sat in a chair outside of the Judge's chambers.Carver looked up at their approaching footsteps. "Detectives," he said with a suppressed look of satisfying sneakiness.

"Hello, Ron," said Bobby.

"Eames, where's your cast?"

"Got it off yesterday," she said.

"Well, we'll have to make due," said Carver. He turned and knocked on the door. He heard a "Come in," and turned the knob. Judge Aaron Weber was a plump man in his 50s. He had been on the bench for so long, that he found most crimes to be funny- it was the only way, he argued, to keep himself from going crazy.

"Your Honor, I'm Assistant District Attorney Ronald Carver. This is Detectives Eames and Goren, who were investigating the case." Carver motioned a hand towards Alex and Bobby.

"Goren? Eames?" said the Judge Weber, giving the two detectives a suspicious glance. "The two under investigation for…"

"I can assure you those allegations are completely false and the investigation-" began Carver, but Weber cut him off.

"Stop right there, Mr. Carver," said the judge.

"Say no more," said Ron pleasantly, and he took the seat next to Alex. Bobby retreated to the corner and began to examine Weber's bookshelf.

"Have the accused and his attorney arrived yet?" asked Weber.

"Not that I am aware of, but we are a little early." Just as Carver finished his sentence he turned around to a knock on the door. "Ah," he said.

Weber called out a second "Come in."

Peter and his attorney entered the room. Alex and Bobby exchanged a tense look between themselves, then between them and Peter. "Ah! Mary," said Weber as he rose from his chair grinning. "Back again? Are you out to set a record?"

"You should know better than that, Your Honor- I defend people whom I believe to be victims of the system. You know that as well as anybody else," she said, caught between amusement and business.

"Your client's funeral," he replied mildly as he sat back down. "Now that everybody is here, shall we start?"

"I'd love to," began Peter's attorney. "This is a motion to suppress the confession, based on my client's psychiatric condition." She handed Weber a blue piece of paper. "This is a motion to drop the charges against my client for a murder in which there is no murder weapon, body, or evidence what so ever-"

"Besides the confession," interjected Carver.

"-Which was obtained by two detectives under investigation by the Internal Affairs Beurua."

"Which has nothing to do with their ability to fulfill their duties. And they were obviously on the right track seeing as how your client shot them and abducted Detective Eames to avoid capture," said Carver tensly.

"Enough," said Weber. "Anything else Ms. Norman?"

"No, Your Honor."

Weber turned to Carver. "Anything you'd like to add Mr. Carver?"

"The People file a motion to have the IAB investigation excluded from all evidence or mention during the trials. Detectives go under investigation all the time and the law states that a person is innocent until proven guilty-"

"That's a bit of a stretch Mr. Carver. I do not believe that an IAB investigation is comparable to a criminal trial."

Carver sat in silence, contemplating his words. To argue further might actually work in favor of the defense. He thought carefully. "That being said, Your Honor, we do not feel that it is relevant to the case. The Detectives are on official suspension, so they will not be further involved in these proceedings. All evidence and information they obtained was done so lawfully. There is no reason to drag their private lives into this trial."

Weber sat silent, thinking. "Ok, Ms. Norman. The confession is in, but I am ordering your client to undergo a state Psychiatric evaluation. You can skew the results all you like. And, since the confession is in, so is the trial. However, I would suggest a plea agreement. Mr. Carver, I will rule on the IAB investigation after the defendant undergoes his Psychiatric evaluation."

"Thank You, Your Honor."

"Your Detectives are here, Ron. Anything they would like to add?"

"No sir."

"Very well, see you at trial."

Ron Carver's Office

Norman and Peter sat down at the table in Carver's office. Alex was sitting at Carver's desk and Bobby was standing right behind her, leaning against the wall. "Let's talk deal, Ron," she said.

"I will offer Murder 2 for the murder of Sam Engal, with the appropriate term served in an appropriate facility once your client has undergone his evaluation. And if your client offers up the body and the murder weapon, I might be able to chop that down."

"You don't have any evidence my client committed these crimes. You have nothing."

"We have the e-mails, we have the DSL number linking your client to that e-mail account on the exact date Mr. Engal seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. We have your client's assault on two detectives, and, oh yes, we have the confession." Carver sat relaxed in his chair, his leg across his lap.

"Which was obtained by two detectives who are under investigation, as I said before."

"Their investigation has nothing to do with their abilities to investigate crimes. Your client's little 'press conference' was nothing more than a ploy to contaminate the jury through the media, bring scrutiny to the NYPD for doing its job, and smear the two detectives who are about to put your client in jail. It was an unfounded act of desperation," replied Carver. He paused. "Murder 2."

The lawyer turned to Peter, spoke, then turned back to Carver. "Man 1 for the location of the body and the murder weapon."

"Only if he pleas out for the assaults as well."

"Not gonna happen. My client was not in a right state of mind when he assaulted those officers."

"They deserved it," spat Peter, who had not said a word through all of this.

"Peter, be quiet," spat Norman at him. Peter relaxed and sat back in his chair. Mary continued. "Man 1 for the body and the weapon," she said simply to Carver.

"Very well," said Carver.

Norman and Peter got up and left the room, Peter talking animatedly toher once the door was closed behind them. Carver turned the Alex and Bobby, who might as well have been sitting in the same chair for the amount of space between them…

"Well detectives, it seems now the ball is in your court. I will go talk to Captain Deakins. Good Luck," he said simply and he left them alone in his office.

Alex turned to Bobby. "Good luck for what?"

"Our evaluations…"


	20. Shrinkwrapped

Chapter 20

Alex Eames walked into the interview room at Major Case. She had been here many times before (only a few hundred), but never in her position. This time, she was the one being asked the questions. She sat down across from the balding Psychiatrist. She didn't know whether to feel worried or annoyed, but decided it was probably a little bit of both.

"Hello, Detective Eames," he said. He sounded truly gentle. "I'm Dr. McKoy. I assume you know why you are here."

"Because I work here," spat Alex.

"Detective, lashing out at me will not help you at all. The more you are open with me, the more I can help you."

"You think you can help me if I open up and tell you everything?"

"You're afraid that your actions will cost you your job?"

"You tell me."

"I can't tell you unless you tell me," he replied simply. He paused. "Have you been feeling stress here- at work?"

"There's always stress, this is Major Case. We deal with twice as much shit-"

"You know what I mean, Detective. An unusual amount?"

Alex sighed. "It was tough. It was a tough case to crack and it was tough when I was shot and taken. There's always an 'unusual amount of stress' involved in that. But," she shrugged and looked as if she could smile for just a moment, "We're trained to cope with it."

He wrote in his notes. "You think you cope well with it?"

"Well enough, yeah."

"Do you drink?"

"Bobb- Goren and I go out for drinks occasionally, but we never get drunk. We're each other's designated driver…" She smiled to herself.

McKoy nodded and wrote in his notes again. "Have you been involved in a relationship recently?"

Alex paused. "Yes," she finally said. How could she be so stupid! Here she was, Ms. Smartass, and she was telling a Psychiatrist that she drank with her partner…she was (Alex twitched) sharing her feelings. She wanted to scream with rage.

"With who?"

Alex regained her mental composure. "I'd rather not say."

McKoy nodded and decided that it was time to charge ahead. "With Detective Goren?"

"My business is my business," said Alex with no discernable facial expression.

"So you have?"

"Do not put words into my mouth, doctor," she said, agitated. She leaned forward.

"I am asking you, yes or no. You know that I have to. That's what this whole investigation is about-"

"It doesn't interfere-"

"Have you or haven't you?" Alex and Dr. McKoy were staring each other down from across the table.

Alex was shaking. So, it was down to this… All she had to do was think like Bobby. This doctor was trying to get her to confess. If she knew Bobby's techniques inside-out, she could beat this guy. She just had to be careful…"No," she said and she threw herself against the back of her chair. Shit! Lying was the first mistake…

"Ok, Alex, let's move on to something else… When Peter shot your partner and abducted you, your first thoughts went to… your partner?"

"My partner."

"How long have you two been working together?"

"We're in our fifth year."

"So it was only natural that your thoughts should go to Detective Goren-"

"My thoughts were focused on the man lying on the floor bleeding from a gun shot wound. Had any other person been there I would have thought about them. The fact that it was," she paused, but just for a split second, "Goren only proves that it was Robert Goren who was shot."

"You weren't worried about what Peter might have done to you?"

Alex sighed again. "Of course I was. Our information up until that point had led us to believe that he had raped and murdered 5 other women."

"And yet you worried over your partner-"

"Don't try to belittle the situation! There were a lot of things on my mind: my injury, what Peter could have done to me, what could have happened to Goren. Every possible scenario went through my head. If I tell you that I was 'worried' about Goren because he wasn't capable of saving me will you stop tainting your questions? If I act selfish will you ignore the fact that I was genuinely concerned for him and think that I was worried what would happen to me because I didn't love him as opposed to thinking that I _was_ worried about him because I did?" Alex was panting.

Dr. McKoy had to take a moment to digest what she had just said… Wait, she wasn't worried for him because she didn't love- no wait…_say that again?_ He repeated the words in his head as best he could remember them: _If I act selfish will you think I was worried only for myself and didn't love him?_ He finally got everything organized. "So…you were sleeping wi-" he stopped and thought carefully at the look of outrage on Detective Eames' face. He reverted back to school: if she thinks you understand, she'll open up. "So, you love him?"

"I have to go to the bathroom," she said coldly and got up and left.

Alex walked to the ladies room and rinsed her face. Bobby made it seem so easy… because it was. If this fruitcake could crack her then Bobby cracking a Criminal was nothing- _no! Bobby was better than that. This guy is just a fruitcake; there are criminals who are smarter than he is… Ooh I can't wait for Bobby to chew this guy up and spit him out…_

She left the restroom and sat down at her desk across from Bobby. "How did it go?" he asked.

"Horribly. Bastard put words in my mouth…"

"I'm sure you stuffed those words right up his ass."

Alex laughed. "Oh, if only… You got the body and the weapon from Peter yet?"

"Not yet, we're meeting with him tonight, 8pm."

"After dinner?"

"Yah- do you need a drink?" he asked.

"I would love one, but my shrink says I'm not allowed to drink to cope with stress…" she said with annoyed sarcasm.

"Really…" said Bobby sarcastically. He knew drinking wasn't the answer, but Alex needed some form of comfort.

"Yah, only not in so many words…"

"So he never said it specifically?" he asked slyly.

"No."

"Then why are you still thinking about that fruitcake?"

Alex smiled. "Be my designated driver?"

"Always."


	21. The Saw

10 points to whoever can pinpoint the Barboza reference…

Chapter 21

Alex waited in the SUV as Bobby ran into the store for a 6 pack. He looked rather odd, seeing as how he was in his office clothes and the lady standing behind him in the checkout line was in her slippers with curlers in her hair.

However, this didn't seem to faze her. "Hi, Bobby," she said in a scratchy tone behind him.

Bobby turned around. "Oh, Hello, Mrs. Barboza," he said back to her.

"Whatchoo got there, beer?" she said, looking over the pile of things in her arms.

"Yah."

"I thought you didn't drink."

"I don't, this is for Alex- my partner," he said, though he hadn't realized-

"I thought you were straight," she said abruptly, surveying him over her glasses. She was too old for manners, but somehow people still liked her.

Bobby laughed. "Alex is my partner at work, Alexandra. She's a Detective too."

Mrs. Barboza looked only slightly apologetic. "Oh," she said absentmindedly. "Isn't she the one that's been on the news with you?"

Bobby handed the beer to the clerk who scanned it, then announced the total. "Yah, that's her." With anyone else he would have been annoyed by now, but it was Mrs. Barboza, his batty old neighbor, and he didn't see the need to get upset with her. He wouldn't have minded if they could have discussed this somewhere else beside the store check out, but he would just have to shrug it off.

"She's pretty," she said as she dumped her things on the moving belt.

Bobby turned his head from counting the dollar bills in his hand and looked at Mrs. Barboza one last time with a light smile on his face. "Yah, yah she is." He finished counting, handed the clerk the money, and headed out the door, Mrs. Barboza watching him with a knowing grin on her face.

He opened the door and set the beer in the back seat, then got into his own. "What took you so long?"

Bobby smiled. "Ran into my chatty neighbor. I said the words 'Alex' and 'my partner' in the same sentence and she though I was gay."

Alex laughed. "Gay? That's a good one! Damn shame it's not true…"

"Why do you say that?"

"Then you'd be able to flaunt it to IAB."

Interview Room, Major Case Squad

Bobby sat down at the chair across from Peter and his attorney. It was Alex's turn to lurk in the corner.

"Why are _you_ here?" he asked. "I thought you two were on paid holiday?"

"Shut your mouth," spat Alex, not leaving her corner.

"They are here at my request," said Ron.

"So, Peter. You are aware of the plea agreement?" asked Bobby innocently. "Where are the body and the weapon?"

Peter had a look of deepest loathing on his face. "The saw is at the bottom of the East River- good luck. The body…"

Alex stepped forward. "Peter," she said warningly.

Peter looked zoned out. "The body…" he leaned forward, looking Goren straight in the eyes."For every piece of the victims he took, the got a piece of him," he whispered.

"That's not good enough," said Alex, but Bobby was deep in thought. Carver couldn't decide between contemplating Peter's words, or Goren's expression.

Bobby looked up at Alex. There they were, communicating without words again, a peeve that annoyed Peter to no end…

"Are you two psychically doing each other right now or something?" he spat.

"Shut up," Alex shot at him again.

"How many pieces?" asked Bobby.

"How many victims?" asked Peter.

Carver had begun to say "five" when Bobby cut him off. "We'll find them," he said.

"Oh no you won't!" gloated Peter. "You can't do anything while you're on suspension."

"Thanks for pointing that out, Mr. Ballons," said Carver. "This of course means that you won't be getting anything unless you tell me the exact location of every single piece."

"Not gonna happen," said Peter, raising his eyebrows and looking Carver straight in the eyes.

"Damn it, Peter. This is not some competency test for the NYPD to pass! The reason your sister's killer stayed out there so long was because of interference like this! So, if you would like more Psychopaths like Sam Engal to stay on the loose while you serve maximum sentence, then by all means, be a hard-ass. Or, you could get your sentence reduced while helping us get back on the job to catch people like this man. Protecting his dead body won't protect you or any future victims of this kind of crime," she said. Her voice had gone from pissed off to a state of understanding, albeit a frustrated one.

"The more you tell us, the better we can do our jobs," Bobby continued gently. "The better you help us understand this man, the better we can work to prevent this kind of thing in the future."

Peter had begun to look genuinely concerned. "How will telling you where his body is help you understand his motives better?"

"Like I said, protecting his dead body won't protect you or any future victims." She paused. "Just tell us where the body is." In truth, neither she nor Bobby wanted to answer that question just yet. Peter was taken aback, which was where he needed to be. If they could break through his anger, they could get him back on their side. However, that was probably the last thing Peter needed to find out…

Peter reached for the notepad and began writing.

The next morning Alex and Bobby got off of the elevator on to the 11th floor and saw Dr. McKoy standing in conversation with Deakins.

"Give him hell for me," said Alex as Bobby sighed with an 'oh joy' look and headed across the squad room to the two conversing men…

-------ok…it will probably take me a week or so to write Bobby's shrink evaluation- come on, it's Bobby, these things take time… but I've got a lot of good ideas floating around in my head… hang tight!


	22. Adequate Compensation

Chapter 22

Bobby followed Dr. McKoy into the interview room. His mind wandered into what Alex must have felt like sitting in this chair. He suspected it was something of a cross between anxiousness and aggravation. With the aggravation more present on the surface…

Dr. McKoy sat down and started a new page of notes. "So, Detective Goren, or Bobby as you seem to be known."

Bobby shrugged.

"Indifferent to it?" he asked inquisitively.

"Oui, bof," he replied.

"So, Detective Goren then?"

"Robert's fine."

"Not Bobby."

"Let's move past the name thing. Bobby is not a term of endearment." This was one of those rare occasions that Bobby stood up for his intelligence, though he had a feeling that he would be down a lot of that today, and it made him slightly embarrassed to have to think about it.

"Fair enough," replied McKoy. "Let's talk about your personal life."

"What? Like dating?"

"Sure, dating. Do you have an active social life?"

"I try. Sometimes it doesn't always work out."

"Your busy schedule get in the way."

"Women don't always like the idea of midnight egg rolls with Eames."

"I can understand that. What do _you_ think of Detective Eames."

"What do you mean?"

"As a person."

"She can be a bit bitter at times, but I can see where she's coming from. We see a lot, and it's her was of dealing with the stress."

"And physically?"

"She's good-looking, sure." Bobby wasn't tense, but he certainly wasn't relaxed. He knew why he was here, but that didn't make it any more appealing. No lying was all he had told himself.

"Midnight egg rolls-" began McKoy, but Bobby cut him off.

"Ask Deakins from the menu and the case notes with plum sauce on them," he said laughing.

McKoy nodded then decided to move on. "Let's go back to dealing with stress. How do you deal with the horrific crimes you see everyday as opposed to your partner?"

"Bobby thought long and hard. "By rising above it," he said definitively.

"How so?"

"A Killer's logic is flawed-"

"And yours isn't?" asked McKoy skeptically. Oh great, now Bobby was going to have to stand up for himself again. Here goes…

"I never said that. Trying to convince a killer that their logic is flawed is a waste of time. But," Bobby stopped again. He had never really _thought_ about how he did what he did- he just…did it. "If you can tailor to that logic, 9 times out of 10, they reveal that flaw to themselves."

"And that last 1/10th?"

"Denial. Bury them with evidence and convict them."

"Which do you prefer?"

"It's not about preference. I do what I have to to get the killers locked up. I 'deal with it' by knowing that I've got 'em and they know it to. But I suppose it's more complicated than that."

"How so?" McKoy was listening intently. He was half way between being so caught up in Goren's thoughts and trying to manipulate them…

"I don't know if I can really explain it," he paused, "Properly."

"Cognative dissonance?"

"Perhaps."

"Your job adequate compensation?"

"For telling you what you want to hear? I don't lie." Bobby had that look in his eyes. _I'm not stupid, try me._He thought about his explination and McKoy's remark about his job. "And you can't promise that."

"No, I can't," replied McKoy. "Do you drink, Robert?"

"No."

"Eames mentioned you being each others' designated drivers. What was that?"

Bobby thought about it and a smile escaped his lips.

McKoy registered the reaction. Bobby sat up straight from his daydreaming slump. McKoy said, "There are several bar tabs on your credit card- and a 6 pack at the grocery store right after Detective Eames' interview."

"Now you're just burying me with evidence."

"You're in denial."

"About what? The drinking or Eames?"

"You tell me."

"I need compensation."

"Your job?"

Bobby and McKoy were staring each other directly in the eyes. "My partnership."

-------- Well,I hope it lived up to Bobby Goren standards. You can google search Cognative Dissonance to get more information, but hopefully i gave enough clues... also, for those of you who don't know, VDO speaks fluent French- i just had to insert a bit somewhere!


	23. Finally?

Chapter 23

McKoy watched Goren leave, and then sat there in stunned silence not knowing whether to be confused or… well, he couldn't really describe it. He supposed it ventured away from confusion and more towards his personal take on the situation.

Anything was possible, really. No matter what was going on between them, it certainly didn't seem to have an effect on their jobs. At least, he didn't think it did. He really couldn't say. And McKoy had developed quite the respect for a man who could walk around his words and put the interviewer in a position to bargain…

He got out of his chair and stuck his head out of the door. "Detective Goren?"

Bobby, who was sitting on Eames desk, turned away from his conversation with her and looked at McKoy.

"Could I have another word?"

Bobby shrugged first at McKoy and then at Alex- two very different shrugs- and headed back to the interview room.

He closed the door delicately behind him.

"Why do you feel the need to bargain?" Bobby looked taken aback- he hadn't quite expected this.

"I-"

"You seemed so confident that you were doing nothing wrong. You told me you never lied- and I believe you by the way, though I'm pretty sure you've had at least one drink in your life. You didn't seem to believe that Cognitive Dissonance covered your feelings (because you said so yourself, you never lie- at least not about things like that) and yet you tried to use it as a bargaining tool. Why?"

Bobby had regained himself. "I didn't say that I _never_ lie. I told you that I _don't_ lie. And I tried to use Cognitive Dissonance as a bargaining tool because you presented it as one. I have no desire to lie." Oh great, here goes, opening up now…

"Then you felt you had something to loose?"

"What did I ask for?"

"Your partnership." Bobby nodded and McKoy continued. "So your feelings _did_ grind against what you were saying?"

"No, they didn't. My fee- they were 'grinding' because of what I was saying."

"You felt you still had something to loose."

"Everybody has something to loose, Doctor. I am painfully aware of that."

"I know…" McKoy trailed off, thinking of the family history of Schizophrenia. Was genius truly akin to insanity in this man? "How well do you think you would perform with out Eames?"

Bobby paused. "I can't say."

Bobby left, and McKoy sat there once again in silence. Now he knew.

IAB Directors Office

"Well, McKoy?"

McKoy took a deep breath. "I can find no conclusive evidence that there is any inappropriate relationship that would cause issues in the workplace between Detectives Goren and Eames, and even if there was, the final decision for proper action would lie with their Captain, James Deakins." A vein in Albert Nearing's temple throbbed. Right off, a shrink was reminding him of what he could and could not do. "And I believe that splitting them would not be good for either of them emotionally. This may be due to an inflated dependency on each other, which should in most cases be discouraged, but somehow…"

"Inflated dependency?"

"They are so 'in-tune' with each other that splitting them up would have what I believe disastrous effects on their skills to complete their jobs in such a…_manner_ that you are used to."

"Are insinuating that I would have something to loose by splitting them up?"

"I believe that splitting them up would cause a crater-like break in the excellent record that you bask in."

"How dare y- Have they broken any rules?" demanded Nearing.

"Technically?"

"Damnit McKoy," he said in a threatening manner.

"I can't find any evidence that they have."

"Give me your notes," he spat. McKoy slowly handed the notebook to Albert, who immediately began to flip through them. "The reciepts?"

"All cops go drinking together."

"They carpool-" Albert choked on his words. "The driving...the vicinity...midnight eggrolls!" Nearing was sputtering. All signs pointed towards it, but nothing was conclusive...

"I have the case notes with the plum sauce on them, Captain Deakins gave them to me and vouched for their work."

"Why isn't that noted?" he sputtered.

"I didn't write it down."

"Why not?"

"I don't know," shrugged McKoy.

"Amateurs remember. Professionals write it down," spat Nearing as he thrusted the notebook back into McKoy's hands.

Captain James Deakins' Office

"Yes, thank you very much…I will take that into consideration…_Thank you _Mr. Nearing…Yes, sir…Bye." Deakins hung up the phone, laboriously got up from behind his desk, and stuck his head out of the door. "Bobby, Alex," he said.

The two detectives got up and walked into his office.

"It seems that I am getting two sets of instructions." Bobby studied his face carefully. Deakins was trying to suppress a smile? "One set from your shrink who says that you two are so dependant on each other that splitting you up would be detrimental to your health, not to mention your job skills, and the other from the Director of Internal Affairs who says that you two are so dependant on each other that you should be split up so you can be allowed to marry," Deakins stopped.

Alex let out a bark of laughter, but quickly reined herself back in control. "Sorry, Captain," she said submissively. Bobby was stopping the single giggle that had escaped. _Us, married?_

Deakins rolled his eyes. They really were impossible."The point is that it's my decision and I'm giving _you_ the choice. Regardless of what is going on, choose one or the other- and I don't want to hear a word about this in the future." Goren and Eames looked at each other...


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Bobby looked back at Alex, then to Deakins. The look on Bobby's face said it all. "Let me know by tomorrow," replied Deakins to Bobby's unspoken words.

Bobby and Alex left his office and went outside. They needed fresh air. Badly... "You could do well without me here," began Bobby.

"Are you kidding? I'd go nuts without you here. And you'd go crazy not being able to work," replied Alex.

"I don't know about that," said Bobby.

"Yah right- could you imagine yourself in a home setting? You'd be the classic male eating frozen waffles while I was off living your dream. You wouldn't be able to cope with it." Bobby looked beaten down and upon seeing this look Alex said quickly, "You're already a riot to be around. I would rather watch you use your intellect on perps than your own children."

"Children?"

"You know what I mean," she said tartly. "There's so much of you that wouldn't be the same without doing what you do."

"We can't stay the same forever, you know. Eventually, you're going to want change. I could just transfer back to Narcotics-"

"Goren, If I never changed jobs and I never got another partner as long as I lived I'd die the happiest woman on earth," said Alex, stopping to look him in the eyes.

Bobby smiled but Alex could tell that there was still something on his mind. They walked in silence, occasionally looking at each other, knowing that somehow it would never work out, but not fully understanding why. They rounded the block back to the entrance of One PP and once again saw that several people were giving them looks.

Bobby ignored them and saw Logan, who was walking down the stairs. "Well?" said Bobby.

"It certainly took us long enough, but we finally found every single fucking piece." He paused. "That man is a maniac."

"He's a Psychopath," corrected Bobby.

"Whatever. We found the bodies, exactly where he said they would be. P.K.'s being transferred right now."

"Good," nodded Bobby.

"Hey, you look a little distracted," said Logan. "Word in on your Psych evaluations?"

"Yah," said Bobby. The air was biting at his jacket.

"We've been given an ultimatum," finished Alex.

Logan looked a little confused. "It's a little complicated," said Alex.

"Oh…uh, ok… so are you staying together?"

"In what sense?" moaned Alex as she rubbed her head. Suddenly Logan understood.

"Ah… well," he said a little awkwardly. "I'm going to go meet Carry for coffee."

"Carry?"

"Caroline."

"Right, sorry…"

"Ok then, take it easy," he said as he headed for the door.

Alex looked at Bobby. "Coffee sounds good actually."

Alex and Bobby looked up at the sound of Deakins' voice. "Logan, come here."

He stopped and turned to face Deakins.

"Come here."

A minute or so later Logan turned from Deakins with a manila folder in hand. He dropped it into Bobby's hands with a sly grin. "Guess you don't have much of a choice now, do ya?" he said and walked away.

Bobby opened the and read aloud from a yellow sticky, "There's been another. 48th and Main. Go. Now," in Deakins' handwriting. He looked up at his Captain, whom had a knowing smiled on his face.

Alex gave him a concerned look. Bobby passed her the note and 6 photos from the envelope. Three different women, three different instruments; three different bodies, three different thefts. Alex groaned and said, "Not another one. Can't people just leave each other alone?"

Bobby took another quick glance at Deakins and hurriedly followed Alex towards the SUV without another word. Some things would just have to wait, and he finally understood why…

------- TaDa! It's finally finished! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all the reviews. How bout that Season Premier, eh? Spiffy stuff (doesn't even begin to sum it up).


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